ropped his fist, said "Addio," embraced
her and left the stage.

Samson now came on and the first thing he did was to put his arm round
the lady's neck. She was quite ready for him and put her arm round his.
Thus they stood indulging in a little preliminary fondling till she asked
him point-blank to tell her "il mistero dell' oscuro problema." He
instantly removed his arm and stood off, exclaiming with great firmness--

"No, no, no, non posso!"

Thereupon she began to go away as though all was over between them. It
was a simple ruse, but it deceived the framer of the riddle; he drew her
towards him in repentance, put his arm round her neck again and whispered
into her ear. She took a moment to consider, and then laughed. It was
not the spontaneous laugh of a person overwhelmed by the irresistible
humour of a good joke, it could not well have been that, assuming that he
had told her the true answer; nor was it the perfunctory laugh of a
person pretending to be amused. It was a laugh of heartless mockery.

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the lady.

Samson smelt mischief and brought the curtain down with a fine speech,
threatening her with his wrath if she should betray him.

The next act passed in the same hall of audience; soldiers entered and
stood as guards, and then came Pharaoh. He was followed by two obviously
comic men, who might have been costermongers or knockabout brothers from
a music hall, and one comic woman. The men wore modern shirts and
trousers and long-tailed coats, or rather dressing-gowns, that had once
been as good as those worn by Pharaoh and his prime minister. Turiddu
told me they were Pasquino and Onofrio, and the woman, who seemed to be
just an ordinary woman out of the market with an apron, was Colombina.
But the people give Pasquino the pet name of Peppinino and call the woman
Rosina. These are the masks of Palermo, whose origin, like that of other
Italian masks, is of great antiquity. They grew up to supply a want just
as in our own day we have seen Ally Sloper growing up to supply a want of
the people of London.

There was a dispute as to which of the two men Rosina was to marry, and
the question had been referred to King Pharaoh who decided that it was a
case for trial by riddle, and, accordingly, Rosina propounded a riddle
which was in four questions; after each question Onofrio turned away his
head to meditate, while Rosina, unobserved, whispered the answer into the
ear of Pasquino