He nodded, as though that were the reply he expected. 'Yes, I will give him the sack.' He turned to his wife. 'We will give him the sack, dear, the day after tomorrow and we will put Alfredo there. He has a good wife and they will run it well.' He put his hand on my arm. 'In the meantime, you will not blame me — yes? I am only what your doctors would call in loco parentis at the moment. I do the bookings. But on Friday it will become a little piece of the Splendido. Then, if you stay long, you will remark a difference. But it will take time, you understand?'
'You mean you are taking it over?' I asked.
He nodded. 'On Friday. There is an auction. I shall buy it. It is all arranged. Then you will see.'
'I don't quite get you, Mancini,' said the American. 'Don't you have to bid at an Italian auction? A thing like that, auctioned in America, would attract all sorts of real-estators and business men who'd enjoy running a toy like a slittovia. I know you're the biggest hotelier in the place. But I guess there are others who might like that little property.'
. 'You do not understand,' Mancini said with a quick crinkling of the eyes. 'We are not fools here. We are business men. And we are not like cats and dogs. We arrange things with orderliness. The others do not want it. It is too far out for them. But I have a very big hotel here and I am always progressive. It will make money because Col da Varda will become the Splendido's own ski run. I shall run a bus service and it will not be crowded like the Pocol, Tofana and Faloria runs. So, no one will bid but me. An outsider would never buy. He knows there would be a boycott.'
'I'd like to see an Italian auction,' I said. 'Where is it being held?'
'In the lounge of the Luna. You really wish to come?'
'Yes,' I told him. 'It would be very interesting.'
'Then you shall come with me — yes?' Mancini shook his head, smiling. 'But it will be very dull, you know. No fireworks. There will be just the one bid — a very low one. And then it will be over. But if you really wish to come, meet me here at a quarter to eleven on Friday and we will go together. After, we will have a little drink to celebrate — also because, if I do not give you a drink, then you will feel the time is wasted.' He gave a deep throaty chuckle. 'The Government will make little out of it. Which is good because we do not like the Government here. It is of the south and we have a preference for Austria, you know. We are Italian, but we found the Austrians governed better. If there were a plebiscite, I think this part of the country would vote to return to Austria.'
'What's the Government got to do with it?' asked the American. 'As I remember it, the slittovia was constructed by the Germans for their Alpine troops. Then a British division took it over. Did the British military sell out to the Italian Government?'