He did not know what to answer.

The count looked very stern and pulled his moustaches.

"You have not here come," he continued, seeing that Nino made no answer, "without knowing something.

Evident is it, that, although a man young be, if he nothing knows, he cannot a professor be." "You speak justly, Signor Conte," Nino answered at last, "and I do know some things.

I know the _Commedia_ of Alighieri, and Petrarca, and I have read the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ with Professor Grandi, and I can repeat all of the _Vita Nuova_ by heart, and some of the--" "For the present that is enough," said the count.