"Drink before you speak, if your tongue is dry." Luigi thrust aside the mention of liquor.

It seemed to him that by doing so he propitiated that ill-conceived divinity called Virtue, who lived in the open air, and desired men to drink water.

Barto Rizzo evidently understood the kind of man he was schooling to his service.
"Did that Austrian officer, who is an Englishman, acquainted with the Signor Antonio-Pericles, meet the lady, his sister, on the Motterone ?" Luigi answered promptly, "Yes." "Did the Signorina Vittoria speak to the lady ?" "No." "Not a word ?" "No." "Not one communication to her ?" "No: she sat under her straw hat." "She concealed her face ?" "She sat like a naughty angry girl." "Did she speak to the officer ?" "Not she!" "Did she see him ?" "Of course she did! As if a woman's eyes couldn't see through straw-plait!" Barto paused, calculatingly, eye on victim.
"The Signorina Vittoria," he resumed, "has engaged to sing on the night of the Fifteenth; has she ?" A twitching of Luigi's muscles showed that he apprehended a necessary straining of his invention on another tack.
"On the night of the Fifteenth, Signor Barto Rizzo?
That's the night of her first appearance.

Oh, yes!" "To sing a particular song ?" "Lots of them! ay-aie!" Barto took him by the shoulder and pressed him into his seat till he howled, saying, "Now, there's a slate and a pencil.

Expect me at the end of two hours, this time.