"You seem a little out of spirits, eh?" said I. "Now, what would you say if I could read your thoughts?"
"You read my thoughts, Eccellenza! You joke with me."
"No," replied I; "without joking I will tell you what is passing in your mind. You have just come from the house of Guiseppe the goatherd, and you are disappointed because he has not paid you the three pauls that he promised to pay you after three days. Am I right?"
"Per Bacco!" exclaimed Antonio. "Surely your Excellency is a saint, and it has been revealed to you. How else could you have known that?"
"Does that surprise you," said I. "What would you say if I could tell you more? If I could tell you the day and the hour that you lent the three pauls to your friend? What would you say if I told you it was last Tuesday week in the forenoon, and how you first hesitated to lend the money, having some doubt as to your friend's integrity, but how, after having invoked certain curses on his own head in default of his not being able to pay, you at length yielded, and lent him the three pauls?"
"Diavolo! Eccellenza must be a saint indeed to know all that," cried the peasant, dumbfounded.
"Would you like to know more?" I asked. "At the expiration of the three days you have been regularly every morning to the house of the goatherd, expecting to receive the three pauls, and each time he has sent you away with a different excuse."
"O anime sante mie del Purgatorio!"[14] exclaimed the peasant, crossing himself devoutly. "Either your Excellency is a saint, or you have the demon within you."
"Ha! say you so?" said I. "I will even venture to prophecy that you will never get the three pauls."
"Oh, pray don't say that, Signor. Pray don't say that I shall never be paid. Why should your Excellency think so?" asked the peasant, dismally.