calculation. I went to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

GILDO: Tell us about it. I have often seen pictures of it in the
illustrated papers, but I have never spoken to anyone who was there. Was
it very beautiful? Were there many people? Did you see Queen Victoria?

MYSELF: I can't tell you much about it. I was asleep and when I woke up
I was so hungry that I cried till my mother took me into a side room and
gave me my dinner. Then I went to sleep again until they took me home.
I have been to many exhibitions since, but I never enjoyed one so much.
You see, this one did not bore me.

ALESS: You should not have had your dinner there. I went to the
exhibition in Palermo and the food in the restaurant was not wholesome.

GILDO: Yes, but you must remember that Alessandro is very particular
about his food. He can only eat the most delicate things and must have
plenty of variety.

MYSELF: I did not have much variety in those days. I took my restaurant
with me, the one at which I was having all my meals.

GILDO: Oh well, if one can afford to travel like a prince--

MYSELF: Gildo! I was not six weeks old and--

PAPA: I have now made the calculation and I find you are my senior by six
years. I hope that when I have caught you up I shall carry my age as
lightly as you carry yours. Do I explain myself?

ALESS (_to me_): I think you look older. I should have said you were a
well-preserved man of sixty-four or (_stretching a point in my favour_)
perhaps sixty-five.

MYSELF (_feeling sure that here must be another compliment_): Thank you
very much.

BUFFO: Not at all; it does you great credit.

GILDO: Now me, please. Ask me my age.

MYSELF: Well, Gildo, and how old are you?

GILDO: A hundred and seventy-four next birthday.

MYSELF: Santo Diavolo! You don't look it. You must have been very busy
since last autumn when, if I remember right, you were only twenty-one.

CAROLINA (_tapping my right arm to attract my attention_): Signor Enrico,
Signor Enrico, why do you not ask me my age?

CARMELA (_tapping my left arm_): Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, you have
not asked me my age.

MYSELF: Because I know how old you are. You are both of you the age that
charming young ladies always are, and you do not look a day older.

NINA: I'm fourteen.

CARO and CARM (_comparing notes_): Did you hear what he said? He said we
are charming young ladies.

NINA (_insisting_): I'm fourteen. Do I look it?

MYSELF: I