ooth silver buttons,
knee-breeches, white stockings, and heavy low shoes with steel buckles.
He combined the occupations of farmer, wine-seller, and carrier. When he
was on the road between Subiaco and Rome, Gigetto, already mentioned,
was supposed to represent him. It was understood that Gigetto was to
marry Annetta--if he could be prevailed upon to do so, for he was the
younger son of a peasant family which held its head even higher than
Stefanone, and the young man as well as his people looked upon Annetta's
wild ways with disapproval, though her fortune, as the only child of
Stefanone and Sora Nanna, was a very strong attraction. In the meantime,
Gigetto acted as though he were the older man's partner in the
wine-shop, and as he was a particularly honest, but also a particularly
idle, young man with a taste for singing and playing on the guitar, the
position suited him admirably.

As for Sor Tommaso, with whom Stefanone seemed inclined to quarrel on
this particular evening, he was a highly respectable personage in a
narrow-shouldered, high-collared black coat with broad skirts, and a
snuff-coloured waistcoat. He wore a stock which was decidedly shabby,
but decent, and the thin cuffs of his shirt were turned back over the
tight sleeves of his coat, in the old fashion. He also wore amazingly
tight black trousers, strapped closely over his well-blacked boots. To
tell the truth, these nether garments, though of great natural
resistance, had lived so long at a high tension, so to say, that they
were no longer equally tight at all points, and there were, undoubtedly,
certain perceptible spots on them; but, on the whole, the general effect
of the doctor's appearance was fashionable, in the fashion of several
years earlier and judged by the standard of Subiaco. He wore his hair
rather long, in a handsome iron-grey confusion, his face was
close-shaven, and, though he was thin, his complexion was somewhat
apoplectic.

Having duly and solemnly finished the operation of taking snuff, the
doctor looked at the peasant.

"I do not wish to have said anything," he observed, by way of a general
retraction. "These are probably follies."

"And for not having meant to say anything, you have planted this knife
in my heart!" retorted Stefanone, the veins swelling at his temples.
"Thank you. I wish to die, if I forget it. You tell me that this
daughter of mine is making love with the Englishman. And then you say
that you do not wish t