"I want to tell you something," he began. "You must not be as you are, a
man like you."
"How may that be?" asked Ruggiero, still looking towards the table, and
not pleased at being dragged from his former post of observation.
"I will tell you. I have been serving her with food. You could have done
that instead if you had wished. You could have talked to her, and she
would have liked it. It is easy when a woman is sitting apart and a man
brings her good food and wine--you could have spoken a word into her
ear."
Ruggiero was silent, but he slowly nodded twice, then shook his head.
"You do not say anything," continued Bastianello, "and you do wrong.
What I tell you is true, and you cannot deny it. After all, we are men
and they are women. Are they to speak first?"
"It is just," answered Ruggiero laconically.
"But then, per Dio, go and talk to her. Are you going to begin giving
her the gold before you have spoken?"
From which question it will be clear to the unsophisticated foreigner
that a regular series of presents in jewelry is the natural
accompaniment of a well-to-do courtship in the south.
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