“To learn English.”
“And to see the sights of the country. Such was our bargain. All you talk about chamois—ah, ah! I begin to understand.”
“I showed you a wild roe-deer in the Lutz forest last week, the first you ever saw in your life; and the devil’s own job it was to get you to see it. Won’t that do?”
“There you made a mistake. You ought to have called it a chamois. Then I should have believed that chamois still exist.”
“Still exist? Why, we had chamois only the other day for luncheon.”
“It might have been bad mutton.”
“What next! It was delicious; and no more like mutton than—than——”
“I see what it is. You are afraid of climbing rocks. You have lost your nerve; I noticed it long ago on the cliffs at Scanno, but there are certain subjects one does not like to dwell upon between friends. Troppo vino. You comprehend?”
“Nothing of the kind. And if it were troppo vino, what object do you gain by being offensive about it?”
“To shame you into showing them.”