“What a wonderfully beautiful and charming
girl Brancaccia is; she seems to me to be the most desirable young lady I have ever met.” There was a pause, and I added, “You are a bachelor, Peppino, Brancaccia is unmarried and she is quite different from all the other young ladies.”
“That,” he replied, “is what says my mother. But womans it is always like that. First she will be mother, not satisfied; then she will be grandmother, not satisfied.”
“Of course, if you are too much occupied there is an end of the matter. But, you know, you have as much time as any one else, twenty-four hours in the day, and some of the others find that enough. Would not Brancaccia be exactly the woman to help you to run the albergo and to look after your parents in their old age?”
He admitted that she had the reputation of being an admirable housekeeper and that he had never heard anything against her. So I went on and said all I could think of in favour of matrimony, to which he listened without attempting to interrupt. I finished by saying that if he did marry Brancaccia and it turned out unsuccessful he was not to blame me. He replied with great decision that I need not fear anything of the kind,
for he had made up his mind never to marry any one, and certainly not Brancaccia.
* * * * *
Soon after the wedding festa I returned to London. Peppino and I exchanged several postcards, but Brancaccia’s name was never mentioned in any of his. After a year I received a letter from him. [329]
“Castellinaria.
“Pregiatissimo e Indimenticabile Signore!
“Sono già più di dodeci mesi che non ho il piacere di vedere la sua grata persona sulla nostra spiaggia.
“Con vero piacere Le faccio sapere che mio caro padre gode buonissima salute e che desidera grandemente di rivederla.
“Tre mesi fa il mio cuore è stato distrutto, causa la salita al cielo della mia adorata mamma. Non posso trovare parole per esprimerle il mio cordoglio. Sarebbe stato meglio che il buon Dio avesse preso anche me, perchè non prenderò più alcun piacere nella vita.
“Vi annuncio che Domenica prossima si celebrerà il mio matrimonio.
“Non posso mai dimenticare la sua squisita cortesia ed il gentile pensiero che nutre a mio riguardo. La prego credere che io sono ora, e per tutta la mia vita sarò, a Lei legato di affezione, divozione e rispetto.
“Pampalone Giuseppe.”
I replied in a letter of congratulation to the bride and bridegroom, wishing them every happiness, sending them a wedding present