voglio mangiare un fico;
Bevo alla salute del Signor Enrico. {62}

(_I had to drink each time_, _not much_--_merely to acknowledge the
compliment_--_excusing myself by saying I had not the energy to drink
more_.)

MYSELF: My dear Buffo, when you have sufficiently got into the habit of
being twenty-five to approach the age Gildo says he is, you will not have
so much energy as you have now.

ALESS: Yes, I shall.

MYSELF: No, Buffo mio.

ALESS: We will make a bet about it, but you will lose.

GILDO (_to Aless_): By that time Enrico will not be here to pay if he
does lose, so you will not win.

MYSELF: Bravo, Gildo.

GILDO (_bowing his acknowledgments_): Thank you very night--Why do you
laugh? That is what you say. Why do you laugh?

PAPA (_taking his revenge about the brindisi_): Don't talk so much,
Gildo.

ALESS (_taking his about the bet_): You have been talking all the
evening, Gildo. You are as bad as a conjurer in the piazza.

(_Gildo proclaimed a general silence and_, _as a guarantee of good
faith_, _pretended to skewer his lips together with a tooth-pick_.)

ALESS (_whispering to me_): Argantino is the Prince of the Devils and has
commanded them to make the subterranean road from Paris to Montalbano--

PAPA: May I speak one word?

MYSELF (_graciously_): Yes, Papa. You may even speak two words.

PAPA: I--

ALESS and GILDO (_shouting_): One!

PAPA:--have--

ALESS and GILDO: Two! There now, shut up. You've spoken your two words.
Silence.

CARO: Signor Enrico, last year you only stayed in Palermo four days; this
year you will, of course, stay at least a month.

MYSELF: I am sorry, my dear young lady, but it is impossible.

ALESS:--and they will all escape and--

MYSELF: Please, Buffo, how many kilometres is it from Paris to
Montalbano?

ALESS: I do not remember, but it is a long way.

CARO: Why do you not stay a month?

CARM: Yes, why are you going away?

MYSELF: My dear young ladies, I must go to Calatafimi.

CARO: But why do you go to Calatafimi?

CARM: Yes, why do you not stay with us?

(_Nina did not speak_. _She merely gazed at me as though she could not
mind her wheel_, _Mother_.)

MYSELF: I have friends at Calatafimi whom I have promised to go and see
and I cannot--

ALESS:--and arrive in safety at Montalbano.

MYSELF: I believe you told me once that Montalbano is Rinaldo's castle in
Gascony. Did the devils make a subterranean road right across France?
It i