I Then Pulled Out My Bottle Of Wine, Drank What Was Left Out Of The
Neck (By Way Of Sign)
, And putting it down said, _'Tale, tantum, vino
rosso.'_ My guide also said many things which probably meant that
I
was a rich man, who threw his money about by the sixpence. So the
innkeeper went through a door and brought back a bottle all corked and
sealed, and said on his fingers, and with his mouth and eyes, 'THIS
KIND OF WINE IS SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL.'
Only in the foolish cities do men think it a fine thing to appear
careless of money. So I, very narrowly watching him out of half-closed
eyes, held up my five fingers interrogatively, and said,
_'Cinquante?'_ meaning 'Dare you ask fivepence?'
At which he and all the peasants around, even including my guide,
laughed aloud as at an excellent joke, and said, _'Cinquante, Ho!
ho!'_ and dug each other in the ribs. But the innkeeper of Tizzano Val
Parmense said in Italian a number of things which meant that I could
but be joking, and added (in passing) that a lira made it a kind of
gift to me. A lira was, as it were, but a token to prove that it had
changed hands: a registration fee: a matter of record; at a lira it
was pure charity. Then I said, _'Soixante Dix?'_ which meant nothing
to him, so I held up seven fingers; he waved his hand about genially,
and said that as I was evidently a good fellow, a traveller, and as
anyhow he was practically giving me the wine, he would make it
ninepence; it was hardly worth his while to stretch out his hand for
so little money.
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