"At last we are alone," said Big Anania, who was eating salad made into a sandwich with girdle cakes; "but you'll see they won't leave you long in peace. It'll be Atonzu here, Atonzu there! you're an important man now you've been in Rome. I, too, when I returned from my military service——"
"What sort of a comparison is that?" protested Aunt Tatàna.
"Do let me speak. I remember I had the greatest difficulty in talking dialect. I felt as if I were in a new world."
The student looked at his father and smiled.
"That's what I feel," he said.
"I daresay you do. After a while I got used to it; but as for you, after three days you'll be sick of this gossipy place and—and——"
His wife frowned and he changed the subject a little. "Eh! what a big place that devil of a Rome is to be sure! Give me the glass, my old beauty! What are you grimacing for? Why are you so important because you've a great man in the house?"
Anania guessed at some secret and said.
"What's the matter? Tell me. What's being said about me?"
"Nothing, nothing; let the crows caw," said the woman.