"Oh, yes, of course! To-morrow! You're an ass, Brontu Dejas! You may be rich, but you are as stupid as a lizard, stupider than one! Here, when you might marry a maid,--some rich young girl, as fresh as a rose with the dew still on it,--you want instead to have that woman! Upon my word, it will give me something to laugh at for the next seven months!" "All right, you can laugh till you split in two, like a ripe pomegranate! But I'm going to marry her!" said Brontu angrily. "There's no other woman like her, and I shall marry her; you will see!" "Well, do marry her, my little spring bird!" cried the other, bursting into a loud laugh. Brontu joined in, and they continued on their way uproariously till they saw a tall figure with a staff silently approaching them. "Uncle Isidoro Pane, did you have good sport?" shouted Giacobbe. "And your legs, have they plenty of punctures?" "You had better turn leech-fisher yourself," said the other, coming up to them. "Whew! what a smell of brandy! Some one must have broken a cask near here!" "Do you mean that you think we are drunk?" demanded Brontu in a bullying tone. "The only reason you don't get drunk yourself is because you haven't anything to do it with! Get away! get away, I tell you, or I'll crush you like a frog!" The old man laughed softly, and walked on. "Idiot!" said Giacobbe in an undertone. "Don't you know that he could have helped you with Giovanna? He's a friend of hers." "Here! here!" shouted Brontu, turning around, and gesticulating with both arms. "Come back! come back, I tell you! 'Sidore Pane, _che ti morsichi il cane_!"[4] he laughed, delighted with his rhyme. But Isidoro did not stop. "Do you hear me?" yelled the tipsy Brontu, stammering somewhat. "I tell you to come here! Ah! you won't do it, you little toad? I tell--you----" But Isidoro silently pursued his way. "Don't talk to him like that; what sort of way is this to carry on?" remonstrated Giacobbe. Brontu thereupon adopted a new method. "Little flower, come here, come here! Come listen to what I have to say. You may tell _her_--that friend of yours--well, yes, Giovanna, that is who I mean. You may tell her that if she gets a divorce I'll marry her!" This had the desired effect. The old man stopped short, and turning around, called in a distinct voice: "Giacobbe Dejas!" "What is it, my dear?" answered the herdsman mockingly. "Make--him--keep--quiet!" returned Isidoro in the tone of a person who means to be obeyed. For some unexplained reason, Giacobbe felt a sudden sense of chill as he heard the tone and those four emphatic words. Taking his new master by the arm he drew him quickly away, murmuring: "You are a dunce! You behave as though you had no sense at all! What a way to talk!" "Didn't you tell me to yourself?" "I? You are dreaming! Am I crazy?"