Don Domenico, dumbfounded, stood for a time speechless. Then he retraced his steps, wondering what could account for this behaviour, when Matteo Verdura, one of the fig-eaters, called:
“Come here! Come here! I have a great bit of news to tell you.”
“What news?” asked the man of the long spine, as he approached.
“Don’t you know about it?”
“About what?”
“Ah! Ah! Then you haven’t heard yet?”
“Heard what?”
Verdura fell to laughing and the other cobblers imitated him. Spontaneously all of them shook with the same rasping and inharmonious mirth, differing only with the personality of each man.
“Buy three cents’ worth of figs and I will tell you.”
Don Domenico, who was niggardly, hesitated slightly, but curiosity conquered him.