"I offend you," he said quickly.
The old man was smiling.
"Agostino Balderini is too notoriously a bad joker to be offended by the comments of the perfectly sensible, boy of mine! My limbs were stiff, and the first three steps from a place of rest reminded me acutely of the king's five years of hospitality.

He has saved me from all fatigue so long, that the necessity to exercise these old joints of mine touched me with a grateful sense of his royal bounty.

I had from him a chair, a bed, and a table: shelter from sun and from all silly chatter.

Now I want a chair or a bed.

I should like to sit at a table; the sun burns me; my ears are afflicted.