"I shall find another English fool, perhaps!" he said. "Chi lo sa?"
"And his cristiana?" asked another fisherman. "What is she like?"
"Like!" cried Salvatore, pouring out another glass of wine and spitting
on the discolored floor, over which hens were running; "what is any
cristiana like?"
And he repeated the contadino's proverb: "'La mugghieri è comu la gatta: si l'accarizzi, idda ti gratta!'"
"Perhaps the Inglese will get scratched to-night," said the first
fisherman.
"I don't mind," rejoined Salvatore. "Get us a fresh pack of cards,
Fortunato. I'll pay for 'em."
And he flung down a lira on the wine-stained table.
Gaspare, now quite relieved in his mind, gave himself up with all his
heart to the enjoyment of the last hours of the fair, and was unwearied
in calling on his padrone to do the same. When the evening meal was over
he led the party forth into the crowd that was gathered about the music;
he took them to the shooting-tent, and made them try their luck at the
little figures which calmly presented grotesquely painted profiles to the
eager aim of the contadini; he made them eat ices which they bought at
the beflagged cart of the ecclesiastical Romans, whose eternally chanting
voices made upon Maurice a sinister impression, suggesting to his
mind--he knew not why--the thought of death. Finally, prompted by Amedeo,
he drew Maurice into a room where there was dancing.
It was crowded with men and women, was rather dark and very hot. In a
corner there was a grinding organ, whose handle was turned by a
perspiring man in a long, woollen cap. Beside him, hunched up on a
window-sill, was a shepherd boy who accompanied the organ upon a flute of
reed. Round the walls stood a throng of gazers, and in the middle of the
floor the dancers performed vigorously, dancing now a polka, now a waltz,
now a mazurka, now an elaborate country dance in which sixteen or twenty
people took part, now a tarantella, called by many of the contadini "La
Fasola." No sooner had they entered the room than Gaspare gently but
firmly placed his arm round his padrone's waist, took his left hand and
began to turn him about in a slow waltz, while Amedeo followed the
example given with Maddalena. Round and round they went among the other
couples. The organ in the corner ground out a wheezy tune. The reed-flute
of the shepherd boy twittered, as perhaps, long ago, on the great
mountain that looked down in the night above the village, a similar flute
twittered from the woods to Empedocles climbing upward for the last time
towards the plume of smoke that floated from the volcano. And then Amedeo
and Gaspare danced together and Maurice's arm was about the waist of
Maddalena.