Under the Shadow of Etna Part 8

"G.o.d's will in your case is done with a snap and a spring; to suit yourself! And it was G.o.d's will, was it, that I should return from so far to find this fine state of things, _gna_ Lola!"

The poor fellow still tried to bl.u.s.ter, but his voice grew hoa.r.s.e, and he followed the girl, tossing his head so that the ta.s.sel of his cap swung from side to side on his shoulders. To tell the truth, she felt really sorry to see him wearing such a long face, but she had not the heart to deceive him with fine speeches.

"Listen, _compare_ Turiddu," she said to him at last, "Let me join my friends. What would be said in town if I were seen with you?"

"You are right," replied Turiddu, "Now that you are going to marry _compare_ Alfio, who has four mules in his stable, it is best not to let people's tongues wag about you. But my mother, poor soul, was obliged to sell our bay mule, and that little plot of vineyard on the highway while I was off in the army. The time 'when Berta spun,' is over and gone, and you no longer think of the time when we used to talk together from the window looking into the yard, and you gave me that handkerchief before I went away, and G.o.d knows how many tears I shed into it at going so far that even the name of our place is lost!

So good-by, _gna_ Lola,--Let's pretend it's rained and cleared off, and our friends.h.i.+p is ended."[12]

[12] _Facemu c.u.n.tu ca chioppi e scampau e la nostra amicizia finiu._

_Gna_ Lola married the carter, and on Sundays used to go out on the balcony with her hands crossed on her stomach, to show off all the heavy gold rings that her husband gave to her. Turiddu kept up his habit of going back and forth through the street with his pipe in his mouth, his hands in his pockets, and an air of unconcern, and ogling the girls; but it gnawed his heart that Lola's husband had so much money, and that she pretended not to see him when he pa.s.sed.

"I'll get even with her, under her very eyes; the vile beast," he muttered.

Opposite _compare_ Alfio lived _ma.s.saro_ Cola, the vinedresser, who was as rich as a pig, and had one daughter at home. Turiddu said and did all he could to become _ma.s.saro_ Cola's workman, and he began to frequent the house, and make sweet speeches to the girl.

"Why don't you go and say sweet things to _gna_ Lola?" asked Santa.

"_Gna_ Lola is a fine lady. _Gna_ Lola has married a crowned king now!"

"I don't deserve crowned kings!"

"You are worth a hundred Lolas, and I know some one who wouldn't look at _la gna_ Lola or her saint when you are by, for _gna_ Lola isn't worthy to wear your shoes, no, she isn't!"

"The fox when he couldn't get at the grapes said, 'How beautiful you are, _racinedda mia_,' my little grape!"

"Ohe! hands off, _compare_ Turiddu!"

"Are you afraid that I will eat you?"

"I'm not afraid of you or of your G.o.d."

"Eh! your mother was from Licodia, we all know that! You have quarrelsome blood. Uh! How I could eat you with my eyes!"

"Eat me then with your eyes, for we should not have a crumb left, but meantime help me up with this bundle."

"I would lift up the whole house for you, yes, I would!"

She, so as not to blush, threw at him a stick of wood which was within reach, and by a miracle didn't hit him.

"Let's have done, for chattering never picked grapes."

"If I were rich I should try to get a wife like you, _gna_ Santa."

"I shall never marry a crowned king like _gna_ Lola, but I have my dowry as well as she, whenever the Lord shall send me anyone."

"We know you are rich, we know it."

"If you know it, say no more, for father is coming, and I shouldn't like to have him find me in the court-yard."

The old father began to turn up his nose, but the girl pretended not to notice it, because the ta.s.sel of the bersegliere's cap had set her heart to fluttering, and was constantly dancing before her eyes. When the _babbo_ put Turiddu out of the house, his daughter opened the window for him, and stood chatting with him all the evening long, so that the whole neighborhood talked of nothing else.

"I'm madly in love with you," said Turiddu, "and I am losing my sleep and my appet.i.te."

"How absurd!"

"I wish I were Victor Emmanuel's son, so as to marry you."

"How absurd!"

"By the Madonna, I would eat you like bread!"

"How absurd!"

"Ah! on my honor!"

"Ah! _mamma mia!_"

Lola, who was listening every evening, hidden behind the vase of basil, and turning red and white, one day called Turiddu:--

"And so, _compare_ Turiddu, old friends don't speak to each other any more?"

"_Ma!_" sighed the young man, "blessed is he who can speak to you."

"If you have any desire to speak to me, you know where I live,"

replied Lola.

Turiddu went to see her so frequently that Santa noticed it, and shut the window in his face. The neighbors looked at him with a smile or with a shake of the head when the bersegliere pa.s.sed. Lola's husband was making a round of the fairs with his mules.

"Sunday I am going to confession, for last night I dreamed of black grapes," said Lola.

"Put it off, put it off" begged Turiddu.

"No, Easter is coming, and my husband will want to know why I haven't been to confession."

"Ah," murmured _ma.s.saro_ Cola's Santa, as she was waiting on her knees before the confessional for her turn, while Lola was making a clean breast of her sins. "On my soul, I will not send you to Rome for your punishment!"

_Compare_ Alfio came home with his mules; he was loaded with money, and he brought to his wife for a present, a handsome new dress for the holidays.

"You are right to bring her gifts," said his neighbor Santa, "because while you are away your wife adorns your house for you."

_Compare_ Alfio was one of those carters who wear their hats over one ear, and when he heard his wife spoken of in such a way he changed color as if he had been knifed.

"_Santo diavolone!_" he exclaimed, "if you haven't seen aright, I will not leave you eyes to weep with, you or your whole family."

"I am not used to weeping!" replied Santa, "I did not weep even when I saw with these eyes _gna_ Nunzia's Turiddu going into your wife's house at night!"

"It is well," replied _compare_ Alfio, "many thanks!"