“At your disposal!” roared Cocco Bertolli as they dragged him away, amid the crowd which was flocking from every direction. “At your disposal! The Caffè della Svizzero!”
Dario Scossi, Cedebonis, and Cariolin finally succeeded in leading Biagio Speranza away, while he cried furiously: “I must kill him! I must kill him! Two of you, you, Scossi, and you, Cariolin, go at once to find him. Ridiculous as it is, atrociously ridiculous, a duel with that wretch, because of that woman in yonder, I must fight, for otherwise when I see him I should kill him like a dog. Go, go, I will await you at my home.”
The three friends sought to dissuade him, to persuade him not to attach any importance to what had occurred. After all it was but the onset of a madman. But Biagio Speranza would not listen to reason. “He has struck me, do you understand?” And he sprang into a cab to go home, while Scossi and Cariolin, followed by Cedebonis, serious, placid, and curious, repaired to the Caffè della Svizzero.
They found Cocco Bertolli there, swelling with pride, while he narrated the adventure amid the laughter of the crowd that had followed him.
“At once! At your service!” he called, coming toward them. “Pistols, swords, daggers; what you please, at your choice! Or even with hands and feet; but at once!”
Scossi made him understand that two more men were needed, with whom they could discuss the details of the meeting.
“I know no one,” protested Cocco Bertolli. “I would like to send Signor Speranza my two friends, Nero and Erostratus, but unfortunately they are both dead. So, pray, find me two living wretches; I do not wish to trouble myself with such paltry details.”
“I would assist in my quality of physician,” said Cedebonis. “But what can I do? I have lessons at the liceo.”
So Dario Scossi and Cariolin, together with Cocco Bertolli, set out in search of two seconds other than Erostratus and Nero.
Biagio Speranza, trembling with impatience, waited in his home for almost an hour. Then the doorbell rang, but instead of Scossi and Cariolin appeared Nannetta, who, having heard at the café about the quarrel, had come for news.