“Not she!”
“Did she see him?”
“Of course she did! As if a woman's eyes couldn't see through straw-plait!”
Barto paused, calculatingly, eye on victim.
“The Signorina Vittoria,” he resumed, “has engaged to sing on the night of the Fifteenth; has she?”
A twitching of Luigi's muscles showed that he apprehended a necessary straining of his invention on another tack.
“On the night of the Fifteenth, Signor Barto Rizzo? That's the night of her first appearance. Oh, yes!”
“To sing a particular song?”
“Lots of them! ay-aie!”
Barto took him by the shoulder and pressed him into his seat till he howled, saying, “Now, there's a slate and a pencil. Expect me at the end of two hours, this time. Next time it will be four: then eight, then sixteen. Find out how many hours that will be at the sixteenth examination.”