It was not any fault of mine.

But now that Nino is growing to be a famous man in the world, and people are saying good things and bad about him, and many say that he did wrong in this matter, I think it best to tell you all the whole truth and what I think of it.

For Nino is just like a son to me; I brought him up from a little child, and taught him Latin, and would have made a philosopher of him.

What could I do?
He had so much voice that he did not know what to do with it.
His mother used to sing.

What a piece of a woman she was! She had a voice like a man's, and when De Pretis brought his singers to the festa once upon a time, when I was young, he heard her far down below, as we walked on the terrace of the palazzo, and asked me if I would not let him educate that young tenor.