,
_ogni carne ha il mio osso_--every flesh has its own bones. If you have
a girl in the house, you can't do without women. _Fate il passo secondo
il gamba_--don't stretch your legs farther than the bedcover goes, and
don't do more, nor less, than what is right for your Marianna. Don't
shut her up like a prisoner. Don't turn your house into a gaol. _Asino
punto convien che trotti_--one who has started on the road must go
along. You have a pretty niece, and you must arrange your life
accordingly; that's to say, you mustn't do what she doesn't wish. But
you are an ungallant, hard-hearted man, and (I'm afraid I must say, at
your time of life), amorous and jealous into the bargain. You must
pardon me for saying all this straight out to your face, but you know
_chi ha nel petto fiele, non pu sputar miele_--what the heart is
full of comes out at the lips. If you don't die of this accident of
yours--as, at your time of life, it is to be feared you will--I hope it
will be a warning to you, and you'll leave your niece at liberty to do
what she wishes, and marry the charming young gentleman whom I think I
know about."

Thus did the stream of Dame Caterina's words flow on, whilst Salvator
and Antonio carefully undressed the old gentleman and laid him on the
bed. Dame Caterina's words were dagger-thrusts, which went deep into
his heart; but, whenever he tried to get in a word between them,
Antonio impressed on him that anything in the nature of talking was
fraught with the utmost danger, so that he was obliged to swallow the
bitter pill of her utterances. Salvator at length sent her away to get
some iced water, which Antonio had ordered.

Salvator and Antonio convinced themselves that the fellow whom they had
employed had done his business most admirably. Beyond one or two blue
marks, Capuzzi had not suffered the slightest damage, frightful as his
tumble had the appearance of being. Antonio carefully put splints and
bandages on his right foot and leg, so that he could not move; and at
the same time they wrapped him in cloths soaked in iced water, on the
pretext of keeping off fever, so that he shivered as if he were in an
ague.

"My good Signor Antonio," he said, in faint accents, "tell me, is it
all over with me? Am I a dead man?"

"Do not excite yourself, Signor Pasquale," said Antonio.

"As you bore the first application of the bandages so well, and did not
fall into a faint, I hope all danger is over; but the most careful