nding it to me;
"if I had known you had brought that, I would have put it up to keep the
sun off you while you were asleep."

I had not expected this and looked into his eye for a twinkle, I saw
nothing but grave politeness and the kindest consideration for my
comfort. There are moments when one may regret not having been brought
up on impromptu plays; Pietro would have known at once what to do. I
could only ask, rather feebly--

"Have I been to sleep?"--a question to which, of course, he did not know
the answer; he was quite capable of inventing one, however, so I hastily
went on about the umbrella: "Thank you very much. I am afraid it would
have been of no use. I intended to take it to be mended. I had an
accident with it in the storm last night. Look," and I opened it.

"You will never get that mended. You must buy a new one. Why, it is
broken into as many pieces as the quarters of the globe. Ha, ha! The
two parts of Enrico's umbrella are three in number and they are the four
following, viz. the handle, the ribs, the silk, most of the stick
and--and--yes, and this little bit broken off from the end."

"Bravo, Giovanni, bravo!"

"You are coming to see me act this evening?"

"Of course I am."

"And to supper afterwards?"

"Certainly, if I may. I do not want to cause an eruption of Mount Etna,
and I do not want you to leave off speaking to me."

"Bravo, bravo!" And away he went, apologizing for leaving me by saying
he really must try to get a little sleep before nine o'clock or he would
be no good at the performance. And this time I fancied there was
something of a twinkle in his eye.

Four o'clock P.M. is not such a bad dinner-hour when one is going to bed
at four A.M. And four A.M. is not such a bad time for going to bed in
Sicily. At some seasons it is better for getting up and then one takes
one's siesta during the heat of the day. Either way some alteration of
one's usual habits is a good thing on a holiday, and any one in want of a
thorough change from the life of the ordinary Londoner might do
worse--or, as I should prefer to say, could hardly do better--than spend
a week with a Sicilian Dramatic Company.

CHAPTER XIX--BRANCACCIA

After the players were gone I resumed my normal habits. One morning, as
Peppino and I were returning to colazione he asked me whether I had seen
the procession down on the shore.

"Of course I saw it, but I did not know what it was all about."

"