door in the other street at the top of the hill and level with the
living-rooms. This other front door leads straight into a hall, which
will be occupied by the musicians on the evening of the wedding, from
this one passes to the dining-room where the servants are to dance, then
to the salone where the guests are to dance.

We sat in the salone, about twenty of us in a circle, talking the usual
talk, and one of the young ladies asked me whether we had compari at an
English wedding. I said we had something of the kind. She inquired what
I should be called if I were compare at an English wedding, and, seeing
no way out of it, I modestly murmured:

"In England I should be called the Best Man."

This naturally led to a torrent of compliments, which I battled with for
some moments, and finally subdued by asking to see the rest of the house.
We went to the room which had been arranged as the buffet; the walls were
adorned with large looking-glasses, and in the middle was a table for the
cakes and sweets. The buffet is to be my bedroom next time I come to the
Mountain. We passed through two other saloni and then inspected two
bedrooms, one for the happy couple, the other for Berto's mother, who is
to stay with them for the first few days. The presents were arranged on
a table by the side of the nuptial couch, which had arrived that morning
from Palermo together with the rest of the bedroom suite, very handsome,
and made of Hungarian ash. The presents were rather as I have seen
wedding presents in England, plenty of spoons and forks, gold brooches,
rings, bracelets, some set with diamonds and some with other stones, and
I was glad I was not really back in Regent Street choosing my pendant.

We went into the courtyard and into the stable where we saw Mille-lire
the donkey, who is scarcely bigger than a Saint Bernard dog and only cost
thirty-five lire. It was Berto who gave him the name of Mille-lire to
signify that his value far exceeds his price. He has a cart to match and
can take four people, but I think they must be rather small people. He
shares his stable with thirty-eight chickens, old and young, and two
ducks, who all come out into the courtyard to be fed in the sun. There
are also three pigeons, making a total of forty-four creatures. In
addition there are two cats who live in the house and two tortoises who
live in the courtyard. Tortoises are found wild among the rocks in the
mountains and the peasant