Meantime Tomaso resumed his seat at the table, again letting his chin rest on his hands as he nodded to his visitors, no more impressed by their departure than he had been by their arrival: "To the pleasure of seeing you again, and am happy to have been able to oblige you." On the threshold, however, Narcisse's enthusiasm burst forth; he turned to cast a final admiring glance at old Ambrogio's head, "a perfect masterpiece," which he continued praising whilst he descended the stairs.
Down below Giacinta was still sitting on the broken box with her infant across her lap, and a few steps away Pierina stood in front of Dario, watching him with an enchanted air whilst he finished his cigarette.
Tito, lying low in the grass like an animal on the watch for prey, did not for a moment cease to gaze at them.
"Ah, signora!" resumed the woman, in her resigned, doleful voice, "the place is hardly inhabitable, as you must have seen.

The only good thing is that one gets plenty of room.

But there are draughts enough to kill me, and I'm always so afraid of the children falling down some of the holes." Thereupon she related a story of a woman who had lost her life through mistaking a window for a door one evening and falling headlong into the street.

Then, too, a little girl had broken both arms by tumbling from a staircase which had no banisters.

And you could die there without anybody knowing how bad you were and coming to help you.