What?
Am I decrepit, or bent, or misshapen, that my white hair should cry out against me?
Am I hideous, or doting, or half-witted, as old men are?
I am young; I am strong, active, enduring.

I have all the gifts, for you." The baron was speaking French, and perhaps these wild praises of himself might pass current in a foreign language.

But when Nino detailed the conversation to me in our good, simple Italian speech, it sounded so amazingly ridiculous that I nearly broke my sides with laughing.
Hedwig laughed also, and so loudly that the foolish old man was disconcerted.

He had succeeded in amusing her sooner than he had expected.

As I have told you, the baron is a most impulsive person, though he is poisoned with evil from his head to his heart.
"All women are alike," he said, and his manner suddenly changed.
"I fancy," said Hedwig, recovering from her merriment, "that if you address them as you have addressed me you will find them very much alike indeed." "What good can women do in the world ?" sighed Benoni, as though speaking with himself.