'I am not hungry; I am thirsty,' said Carmela, casting down her eyes. 'Give me a penny-worth of dry chestnuts.'
The host slowly went to get those white, shrivelled, hard chestnuts that provoke thirst. In the meanwhile the boy brought a caraffe of greenish glass full of dark wine, stoppered by the usual vine-leaf. Carmela began to munch the chestnuts slowly, drinking a mouthful of wine at times.
'Will you do me the pleasure?' she said to the host, who was hovering about rather uneasily.
'Thank you, I will,' he said.
He never refused, and, as there was only one glass, he took a long pull at the bottle, making the wine gurgle, then drying his lips.
'How quiet you are out here!' said the girl, trying to start a conversation. 'Have you customers always?'
'Not always. It is according to the weather.'
'People from Naples come, do they not?'
'Yes, I have them sometimes.'
'Here are two francs. Buy a cap for your boy,' she said, seeing the host was suspicious.