"Did you hear me whistle? I whistled very loud."
"I didn't hear you at all. But I did hear two men coming. I hid under the cabbages. Who do you suppose they were? Uncle Pera and Maestro Pane. What do you suppose they were doing? They were snaring cats. The caterwauler got caught and Uncle Pera killed him with his stick. Maestro Pane put the beast under his cloak and said quite jolly, 'What a fat one!' 'Not so bad,' said Uncle Pera, 'the last was as thin as a tooth-pick.' Then they went away."
"Oh!" cried Anania open-mouthed.
"When they go in they'll roast him. Then they'll have supper. Now we know what becomes of our cats. They snare 'em—those two. It's a mercy they didn't see me."
"And the money?"
"That's all right. Hidden. We'll go in now, Ninny. You're no good."
Anania was not offended. He shut the window and they went back to the olive-mill. The usual scene was in progress. Efès, leaning against the wall was singing his accustomed song:—
"When Amelia so pure and so pale——"
and Carchide was relating his adventures in a neighbouring town.
"——the Sindaco was a friend of my father's when we were rich," said the handsome young man whose family had always been in the direst poverty; "when I arrived he was there to meet me. He invited me to his house. Damn those rich folk! Thirty men-servants, if you please, and seven women. We crossed two courts, one within the other; very high walls, iron gates, the window all barred——"