dies of eating beans or--"

He broke off significantly, and his right hand, as it lay before him,
straightened itself and made a very slight vibrating motion, with the
fingers all close together. It is the gesture that means the knife among
the southern people. Nanna instantly looked round, to be sure that no
one else was in the room.

"When you have given that medicine, you cannot send for the doctor," she
observed, lowering her voice. "But if he eats, and dies, what can any
one say? We have fed him for charity; it is Friday and we have given him
beans. What can we know? Are not beans good food? We have nothing else,
and it is for charity, and we give what we have. I don't think they
could expect us to give him chickens and French wine, could they?"

Paoluccio growled approval.

"It is forty-seven days," continued Nanna. "You can make the account.
Chickens and milk and fresh meat for forty-seven days! Even the bread
comes to something in that time, at least two soldi a day--two forties
eighty, two sevens fourteen, ninety-four--nearly five francs. Who will
give us the five francs? Are we princes?"

"There is the cow," observed Paoluccio with a grin.

"Imbecile," retorted his wife. "It has been a good year; we bought the
wine cheap, we sell it dear, without counting what we get for nothing
from the carters; we buy a cow with our earnings, and where is the
miracle?"