He replied with glib promptness, with a passage from Beowulf.

“Hie dygel lond warigeath, wulfhleothu, windige naessas.”

“What does that mean?”

Tony looked embarrassed.

“I don’t believe you know!”

“It means—scusi, signorina, I no like to say.”

“You don’t know.”

“It means—you make me say, signorina,—‘I sink you ver’ beautiful like ze angels in Paradise.’”

“Indeed! A donkey-driver, Tony, should not say anything like that.”

“But it is true.”