"You were seven years old," said Luigi, "when I came to serve you. I have aged. But you haven't. You didn't know enough then to come in when it rained, as the Americans say. You don't now. I would not speak of this to others. But to you—yes—for your own good."
Asabri smiled blissfully.
"In all the world," he said, "there is only one thing for a man to fear, that he will learn to take the world seriously; in other words, that he will grow up.... You may bring the hot lemonade and the quinine when they are ready."
And then he blew his nose of a Roman emperor; for he had indeed contracted a slight cold.