I should think.'

CHAPTER IV

BLIND WALLS

'The internal nature of each being is surrounded by a circle, not to be
surmounted by his fellows; and it is this repulsion which constitutes
the misfortune of the condition of life.'--SHELLEY.

'Our eyes are hidden that we cannot see things that stare us in the
face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened.'--EMERSON.

'Forty-six--ninety-eight--fifteen--sixty-three--twenty-seven,' little
Silvio Sardi announced at the door of the Trattoria Buonaventura, at the
top of his strident young voice.

When he had repeated it three times, every one understood. The expectant
stir gave place, in general, to flat disappointment. It is unfortunate
to be so sanguine that the weekly disappointment loses none of its force
with repetition.

But Tommy Crevequer stood up suddenly.

'Ninety-eight and sixty-three. I say, Betty----'

Betty nodded.

'They're ours all right. The ambo; that's how much--seventy-five
francs.'

The Crevequers were rapid and accurate at mental arithmetic.

Congratulation buzzed round them.

Some one raised a voice of anguish.

'Madre Dio, I should have won the terno if I'd staked the numbers my
husband had from the parocco, and I forgot all about it!'

The general opinion, conveyed by shrugs and expressive pursings of the
lips, seemed to be that this was a great pity for Maddalena. They all
knew her husband, who was a Guardian of the Public Security and a hard
man. A friend of his remarked, in a confidential undertone, with no
uncertainty on the subject, 'He'll cut her throat for her.'

'It won't be the first time if he does,' returned his neighbour. 'Dio!
what a fool!'

A man from a table in a corner got up and came over to the Crevequers,
and sat down beside them, with an aspect of resolution, good-humoured
but adamant.

'I shall come with you when you fetch it,' he observed, nodding
cheerfully.

Tommy looked at him, his eyebrows a little aggrieved.

'Oh, Grollo, you----I tell you, I've any amount to do with it; it will
go no way.'

'On the contrary, it will go nearly all the way. For the remaining five
francs I'll wait.'

'I've got to get my evening clothes out of pawn; I'm going out to dinner
on Monday.'

'Well, you must go as you are, then.'

Tommy looked at him resentfully.

'Well, half, then--forty?'

'I shall come with you when you fetch it,' the creditor repeated,
good-temperedly stubborn.

'Oh, well----' Tomm