"Did _I_ say so?" demanded the other. "No, it was other people, and they said it for your own good." "For my good, for my good," moaned Giovanna, burying her face in her hands; "there is no more good for me, ever again, ever again!" "Have you children?" asked Paolo. "Yes, one, a boy. If it were not for him--alas, alas! if Costantino is sentenced, and there were no child--then, oh, misery, misery----!" And she seized her hair by the roots, and began to drag her head violently from side to side, like an insane person. "You mean that you would kill yourself, my beloved?" asked Aunt Bachissia ironically. To the student there was something artificial in the action; it reminded him of a famous actress whom he had once seen in a French comedy, and this open display of grief only aroused his cynicism. "After all," said he, "the new divorce law has been approved, and any woman whose husband is serving a sentence can regain her freedom." Giovanna did not appear so much as to take in what he said, and continued to rock her head from side to side. Aunt Porredda, however, spoke up in a decided tone: "What an idea! as though any one but God could undo a marriage!" "Yes, I read about that in the papers," said Uncle Efes Maria jocularly. "Those are the divorces they get on the Continent, where men and women marry over and over again without troubling themselves about priests, or magistrates either, for that matter, but here!--shame!" "No, Daddy Porru, that's not on the Continent, it's in Turkey," said Grazia. "Here too, here too," said Aunt Bachissia, who had eagerly followed every word. As soon as supper was over the two Eras went off to see their lawyer. "What room have you given them?" asked Paolo. "The 'strangers' room'?" "Why, of course; why?" "Because I really thought I should like to sleep there myself; it is suffocating down here. What better 'stranger' could there be than I?" "Be patient just till to-morrow, my boy. Remember these are poor guests." "O Lord! what barbarous customs! Will there ever be an end to them?" he exclaimed impatiently. "That's just what I should like to know," said Uncle Efes Maria. "These women are draining my pockets. Well, what do you think of the new Ministry?" "I don't think anything of it at all!" laughed the student, recalling a character in the _Dame chez Maxim_, a favourite play at the Manzoni Theatre, which he frequented. Then he sauntered off to look at some books he had left on a shelf at the other end of the room. Minnia and the boy had run out into the courtyard; Grazia, seated at the table, with both cheeks resting on her closed fists, was still gazing at her uncle. He turned towards her: "You read novels, don't you?" "I? No," she answered, turning red. "Well, I only wanted to say that if I ever catch you reading certain books--I'll rap you over the head with them."