"There are so many beautiful things," he used to exclaim excitedly in broken English; "why should they want to make anything that is not beautiful?"
He sputtered time and time again over the pity of gilding the casts. You'd have thought it was a crime which ought to be punished by hanging.
"Even Dante," he groaned one night, "that wonderful, white sad face of Dante covered all over with gilt!"
"It has to look like gold before an American will buy it," I suggested.
"Yes," he nodded. "They would even gild the Christ."
Ruth said she wanted to learn Italian with me, and so the three of us used to get together every night right after dinner. I bought a grammar at a second hand bookstore but we used to spend most of our time in memorizing the common every day things a man would be likely to use in ordinary conversation. Giuseppe would say, "Ha Ella il mio cappello?"
And I would say,
"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei cappello."
"Ha Ella il di Lei pane?"
"Si, Signore, ho il mio pane."