“You certainly give him a coat which does not make him look any bigger.”
“I assure you it is not quite small enough.”
“But tell me how he can belong to the Forty and the Fifty?”
“Just as at Bale noon is at eleven.”
“I understand; just as your Council of Ten is composed of seventeen members.”
“Exactly; but the cursed Forty of Bologna are men of another kind.”
“Why cursed?”
“Because they are not subject to the fisc, and are thus enabled to commit whatever crimes they like with perfect impunity; all they have got to do is to live outside the state borders on their revenues.”
“That is a blessing, and not a curse; but let me return to our subject. I suppose the Marquis Albergati is a man of letters?”
“He writes well enough, but he is fond of the sound of his own voice, his style is prolix, and I don’t think he has much brains.”