Master Dinu was in a hurry to get away, and Ana was downstairs with some friends.
The women remained by themselves, enjoying the wine and conversing. And when two women sit gossiping, who escapes unscathed by their tongues? One person is so and so, another person dresses so absurdly that every one laughs at her, and so the idle talk runs on.
“Doesn’t it make you laugh”—Mistress Veta takes up the word—“when you see Costa’s wife as pink as a girl? How can a woman of her age paint herself?”
“Never mind her, my dear, there are others——”
“I don’t seem to have heard of them.”
Then a little later on:
“I don’t know how it is but Costa is an ill-natured man and a regular chatterbox.”
“You say truly, it’s the talk of the town.”
“But he has become a little more careful, he’s not as he was a while ago. He has begun to shrug his shoulders only and keep his tongue quiet.”
“He pretends to, my dear, but you have not heard him—it’s better for me not to tell you, not to make you unhappy, especially on a feast day.”