"Signore, basta, basta! Giulio will go in now."
"Si! si!" cried Giulio, beginning to tug at his waistcoat buttons.
"Once more, Gaspare!" said Maurice. "Only once!"
"But if you take cold, signorino, the signora—"
"I sha'n't catch cold. Only once!"
He broke away, laughing, from Gaspare, and was swiftly in the sea. The Sicilians looked at him with admiration.
"E' veramente più Siciliano di noi!" exclaimed Nito.
The others murmured their assent. Gaspare glowed with pride in his pupil.
"I shall make the signore one of us," he said, as he deftly let out the coils of the net.
"But how long is he going to stay?" asked Nito. "Will he not soon be going back to his own country?"