While Sandu was watching her, Costa came along; he, too, was a master-tanner.
“Ha, ha! Talpoane’s hands live well. What a moment for me to arrive,” murmured Costa in his beard, smiling as he thought of the story he would be able to tell. “Sandu,” he shouted, “I was going to see you, but as you are at the rinsing I have come down to ask you whether the hides which I have been waiting for these three days have come from Pesta.”
“No, they have not come.”
“Not? Why the devil haven’t they sent them? Have you much work?”
“A great deal.”
“How many hides?”
Sandu looked at him.
“We have a lot.”
“A lot. Yes, I know you have a lot, but how many?”
“I have not counted them.”