Guiseppe looked at Pappina for a moment as though it were on his lips to rebuke her, turned on his heel and started to walk away, then came back.
"You're right for once, girl," he said, grudgingly. "Genaro might ask you, and I want you both to let him see you know about Tasso. It won't hurt either of you to learn something. Tasso was a famous poet. Well, let me see—what was it old Genaro told me? Oh, yes; I remember. He was very wild and ran away from home. The house where he was born and the rock on which it stood were swallowed by the sea, but his sister's house is here and the thing to do is to see that and to go to the Piazza and see his statue."
"Now I remember," said Marta. "I went with the countess. She told me that he came back to his sister's house disguised as a shepherd, and that is why her home is of interest to tourists."
"Bah! What do they care—what do I care—about a poet who has been dead over three hundred years? I'll go—I'll go. I'll give old Genaro to understand that I saw everything worth seeing. Marta, keep your eye on the upstart, or she'll be going too. Mind what I tell you."
He mopped his brow, handed the Punchinellos to Marta, and was off. Pappina heaved a sigh of relief as she watched him go down the street. When he was quite out of sight, she took off her shoe and showed Marta the money she had hidden away. There were two francs and small coins in plenty.
"Don't tell Guiseppe; will you, Marta? It's for you and me to run away with to America when Guiseppe gets too bad. Take it, Marta, and keep it for us."
Tarantella dancers
The tears came to Marta's eyes and her voice shook as she replied: