Well then, yes; Giovanna had, in fact, driven him away like an importunate beggar. She had asked him if he had forgotten that she had a son who would one day spit at her, and demand to know how it was that she had two husbands.
"My soul, I knew it!" cried Giacobbe, leaping in the air for joy.
"What did you know?"
"Why, that she had a son."
"Well, I knew that myself. She chased me out of the house; that's the whole of it. I could hear the two—the mother and daughter—from the road, quarrelling furiously together." And then Brontu went to look for his brandy-flask.
Giacobbe was so overjoyed that he could have laughed aloud for glee.
"Look here!" he called. "The spirits came last night and drank your brandy. Ha! ha! ha! but there must be some left; I am sure there is still some left."
Brontu drank eagerly without making any reply. Then he flung the flask angrily at the herdsman, who caught it in the air; and Brontu, having drunk for sorrow, Giacobbe proceeded to drink for joy.