“See here!” Biagio Speranza cut short the discussion, becoming fervent. “Be quiet, Carolinona, I will marry you myself.” All burst out laughing.
“What is there to laugh at?” cried Speranza, in earnest. “I am speaking seriously. Are we, or are we not, gentlemen? A hawk, gentlemen, threatens this dove; I will defend her. I shall marry her, I tell you. Who wishes to wager on it?”
“I do; a thousand francs!” suddenly proposed Cariolin. And Biagio Speranza cried as promptly: “Out with your thousand francs!” Then Cedebonis too rose from the table, rubbing his hands with delight: “Excellent! Excellent! Do you wish me to hold the stakes, gentlemen?”
“Out with the thousand francs!” repeated Biagio Speranza more emphatically.
“I have not got them with me,” said Cariolin, feeling in his pockets. “But I give my word. Here is my hand on it. A thousand francs and the wedding breakfast.”
“You will lose!” affirmed Speranza, clasping Cariolin’s hand. “All of you gentlemen are witnesses of the wager: I shall marry Carolinona. Come, come, hush, my betrothed. Dry your tears, smile, look at me! Do you not like me?”
With affectionate violence he drew her fat, puffy hands from her face. Pentoni smiled amid her tears. Applause and cries of “Bravo!” broke forth. Biagio Speranza, growing more and more ardent, embraced his betrothed, who struggled: “In Heaven’s name, let me go! let me go!”
“Let the engaged couple sit side by side!” some of them proposed. “Here, here! at the head of the table!” And Biagio Speranza and Carolinona were escorted in triumph, and made to sit side by side.
Good Martinelli was confounded. His nose seemed to grow visibly. Trunfo continued to sneer. “Rubbish! Rubbish!”
“Are you jealous perhaps?” Biagio cried to him, rising to his feet, and striking his fist on the table. “Will you do me the great favor of stopping that? If you gentlemen believe that at this moment I am jesting, you are mistaken. If you think that I am committing a mad act in marrying Carolinona, I have the honor of telling you that you are crazy yourselves. I, who know my poor clay, am aware that at this moment I am wiser than I have ever been before in my life. I am a poor man, gentlemen, who, as a punishment from God, must fall in love with every beautiful woman I see. In love I at once become capable of the greatest follies. Quite different from Cariolin’s lies. Twice, gentlemen, twice I have been at the point—I shudder to think of it—at the point of really marrying. I must escape as soon as possible, at any cost, from this terrible catastrophe which continually threatens me. I profit by this moment, in which, fortunately, I am not in love, and shall marry Carolinona. A flash of genius, gentlemen. A true inspiration from heaven!”