d caffe, but we drifted
into a third and, after liqueur, really did at last set about going
seriously to bed; but what with seeing one another home, trying to find
the reason why _Feudalismo_ was a better play than _La Morte Civile_ (no
one had any doubt that it was, but the reason was involved in declamation
and gesticulation) and one thing and another, it was past four before we
separated. We were standing on the pavement outside the albergo, our
numbers reduced to ten or twelve; instead of saying "Good-night" to me in
the usual way, Giovanni put his hands on my shoulders and said--

"Enrico mio! Caro fratello! Io ti voglio bene assai, assai, assai!"

These were his words, but, without his voice, they can convey no idea of
the great burst of emotion with which he pronounced the "bene," or of the
sobbing diminuendo with which he repeated the "assai."

Next morning there was a rehearsal at noon and plenty of work to be got
through, because the tour was only beginning, and there were six new
plays added to the repertoire and fifteen new performers to the company,
which numbers in all forty-four persons.

Giovanni sat with the prompter at a table and the actors went through
various passages requiring consideration. He was too intent upon getting
things right to waste any time by losing his temper, nor did I ever see
any sign of irritation or hear him speak a hasty word. It is true he
kicked Pietro off the stage one day, but he did it with the volcanic
energy of Vanni kicking his wife out of the house at the end of the
second act of _La Zolfara_. And Pietro was not really touched, he had
acted in many unwritten dramas, understood in a moment, played up with
the correct stage exit and we all laughed at the impromptu burlesque--or
modificazione, as one of them called it.

If Giovanni was not satisfied, he got up and showed the actor how he
wanted the passage done. If Berto still failed to satisfy him, he was
immediately replaced by Ernesto, if Ernesto could not do it, there was
always Pietro who could do nearly anything. Berto was the only one of
the company who had any self-consciousness in his acting or, rather, in
his attempts at acting. Probably he will return to the drapery shop in
which he has hitherto been an assistant, after a pleasant wanderjahr with
the company. Ernesto has been some time on the stage and was formerly a
barber; he is, in fact, still a barber and shaves the company, thereby
adding to h