"How absurd!"
"Ah! on my honor!"
"Ah! mamma mia!"
Lola, who was listening every evening, hidden behind the vase of basil, and turning red and white, one day called Turiddu:—
"And so, compare Turiddu, old friends don't speak to each other any more?"
"Ma!" sighed the young man, "blessed is he who can speak to you."
"If you have any desire to speak to me, you know where I live," replied Lola.
Turiddu went to see her so frequently that Santa noticed it, and shut the window in his face. The neighbors looked at him with a smile or with a shake of the head when the bersegliere passed. Lola's husband was making a round of the fairs with his mules.
"Sunday I am going to confession, for last night I dreamed of black grapes," said Lola.
"Put it off, put it off" begged Turiddu.
"No, Easter is coming, and my husband
