The others laughed like two children at this humourous allusion to Isidoro's leeches. Giacobbe began to cut his meat with a sharp knife, holding it between his teeth and left hand, and muttering that it was as tough as the devil's ear, while his sister and the guest, having once begun, were ready to laugh at everything. Giacobbe's mood, however, suddenly changed, and for some reason which he himself was at a loss to explain, his good spirits of a few hours before deserted him. "When we have finished, I'll take you to see my 'palace,'" he said. "It will be done in a few days now, and if I wanted to I could rent it right away, but I don't want to; I intend to live in it myself." "Then you are not going to hire out any more?" "No, not after a little while; I have worked enough. I have been working for forty years; do you take that in? Yes, it's forty years. No one can say I stole the money I have laid away for my old age." "And you are going to marry?" "Poh! Who is there to marry me? I should despise any young woman who was willing to, and I won't have an old one, not I. Take something more to drink, Isidoro Pane." "You must want to make me tipsy!--well, as it's a holiday--here's to the bride and groom!" "What bride and groom?" "Giacobbe Dejas and Bachissia Era!" said the fisherman, who was waxing merry. Giacobbe made a quick movement as though to throw himself upon him. "I'll knock out your brains!" he cried, his eyes flashing with anger. "Ah, you murderer!" laughed the other. "Hush, hush! One should not say such things," said Aunt Anna-Rosa. Giacobbe drank off a couple of glasses of wine, and then laughed in rather a forced way, looking sideways at his sister and the fisherman. "See here," he said suddenly; "why don't you two get married? Isidoro Pane, my sister is rich, and you see how fresh she is, just like the hip of a wild rose. You'd think she had found some magic herb and made an ointment to preserve her skin." "God bless you! How queer you are sometimes!" exclaimed the little woman. "Yes; you two had better marry; I wish it. My sister is rich; all my property will go to her, because I am going to die first. Somehow, I don't quite know why, but I feel as though I were going to die soon; I feel as though I were going to be killed----" "Oh, nonsense! If it happens to-day, it will come from drinking too much." "Dear little brother, what on earth are you talking about? In the name of the wretched souls in purgatory, don't say such things," said his sister, greatly distressed. "You have no enemies," said Isidoro. "And besides, only those perish by the sword who have used the sword." "Well, I have slaughtered many and many an innocent, unoffending fellow-creature," replied Giacobbe seriously, burying his mouth in a slice of watermelon. "You don't believe me? Sheep and lambs without number!" and he lifted his face, streaming with the pink juice, and laughed. Dinner over, the two men went off to look at the new house.