The medium still kept silence, so that Don Gennaro Parascandolo, feeling the impatience of the whole room behind him, risked a question:
'Have you enjoyed the party, Don Pasqualino?'
He opened his mouth; at last a low, feverish voice came from the thin blue lips.
'Yes,' he said; 'it is a fine christening. The baptism of Christ on the Jordan was fine, too.'
At once there was an agitation in the room, commenting on the phrase, trying to explain it. They formed into circles and groups, the women discussing it among themselves, whilst the number thirty-three, the Redeemer's number, ran from mouth to mouth.
Placidly, as if he was taking a note of a bill of exchange, Don Gennaro Parascandolo put down the remark in his note-book. Don Domenico Mayer took it, too, hiding behind a curtain, without losing his bureaucratic and misanthropic gravity. The old Marchioness, who was deaf, went about asking wildly: 'What did he say? What did he say?' She ended by asking Luisa Fragalà, who sat motionless with staring eyes beside the melancholy Signora Parascandolo. Luisa could only say: 'I don't know, my lady; I did not hear.' However, Don Parascandolo was not satisfied; he went on:
'Did you enjoy the sweets, Don Pasqualino? I noticed you seemed to like them.'
'Yes,' he muttered; 'I eat, but I don't masticate.'
'Have you no teeth?'
'No, I have not.'