"Accidenti to all Professors!"
"What kind of a speech is this? Have I offended you?"
"Offence or no offence! I have said accidenti, and ... if you don't know anything, go and learn;" and with this he passed into the other rooms. Carlino stood there as if he had been made of stucco, and turning to me said—
"But what stuff is this? Do you understand anything about it?"
"Dear Carlino," I answered, "I understand it all, and will tell you at once. Bartolini does not wish to be called Professor."
"What! but is he not Professor Bartolini?"
"That he is,—a Professor, and one of the most able, and perhaps the oldest of them all; but he has a dislike to be called so, because he says all Professors are asses."
"This may be, and may not be," replied Carlino, "but I knew nothing about it; and besides, how does he wish to be called? A Cavaliere? It seems better to me to be an honourable Professor than a Cavaliere."
"No, my dear fellow, not even a Cavaliere, although he does not at all dislike being one, as you see he wears the ribbon of his order constantly in his button-hole."
"Well, what then?"