"It's still better to save one's shoe leather." Then he got in and installed himself on the bracket-seat, declining with abrupt humility the place which Pierre politely offered him beside the Count.

The young priest and the latter now saw that the object he was carrying was a little basket of fresh figs, nicely arranged and covered with leaves.
The horses set off again at a faster trot, and the carriage rolled on and on over the superb, flat plain.

"So you are going to Rome ?" the Count resumed in order to make Santobono talk.
"Yes," the other replied, "I am taking his Eminence Cardinal Boccanera these few figs, the last of the season: a little present which I had promised him." He had placed the basket on his knees and was holding it between his big knotty hands as if it were something rare and fragile.
"Ah! some of the famous figs of your garden," said Prada.

"It's quite true, they are like honey.

But why don't you rid yourself of them.