Page:Manzoni - The Betrothed, 1834.djvu/467

 by so many people who had no right to it. By and by, they will call the bishops Your Eminence, then the abbots will claim it, then the canons"

"And the curates," said the widow.

"No, no, let the curates alone for that; they will be only Your Reverence to the end of the world. But to return to our affairs. On Sunday, I will publish the banns at the church, and obtain, in the mean time, a dispensation for omitting the two other publications. There will be plenty of similar applications, if things go on elsewhere as they do here; the fire has taken; no one will wish to live alone, I imagine; I have already three marriages on hand besides yours; what a pity Perpetua is dead, she might find a husband! And at Milan, signora, I imagine it is the same thing."

"Yes, indeed. In my parish alone there were fifty marriages last Sunday."

"Well, the world wo'n't end yet. And you, signora, has no butterfly begun to fly around you?"

"No, no, I think not of it; I do not mean to think of it."

"Oh, yes, yes; would you be alone indeed? Agnes also, Agnes also"

"You have a mind to jest," said Agnes.

"To be sure I have; it is high time. We may hope that the few days that remain to us will be less sad. As for me, poor old man! there is no remedy for years, as they say, Senectus ipsa est morbus."

"Oh, now," said Renzo, "you may speak Latin as much as you like; I don't care about it now."

"You still quarrel with Latin, do you? Well, I will not forget you. When you come before me with Lucy, to pronounce some little words in Latin, I will say to you. You do not like Latin, go in peace. Eh?"

"Ah, it is not that Latin I dislike, pure and holy like that of the mass; I speak of the Latin which falls on one as a traitor, in the very midst of conversation. For example, now that we are here, and all is past, the Latin you spoke there, in that corner, to make me understand that you could not, andI know not what. Tell me now in language I can understand, will you?"