“Silvestra?”
“No! No!”
“Angelantonia? Balascetta?”
“Each worse than the other!”
“One must have patience.”
“But a spoon, think of that!”
“It’s too much! it is!”
“Don’t remain silent about it, Donna Cristina, don’t remain silent!”
“Whether silent or not silent!” burst out Maria Bisaccia, who for all her placid and benign expression never let a chance escape her to oppress or put in a bad light the other servants of the house, “we will think for ourselves!”
In this fashion the chatter from the windows on the loggia continued, and accusation fled from mouth to mouth throughout the entire district.