“Come, my maidens! This is the time for the pretty who can have many chances, and for the ill-favoured who have few. Matrimony to be had—hot, eaten, and done with as easily as berlingozzi ! And see!” here the conjuror held up a cluster of tiny bags. “To every bride I give a Breve with a secret in it—the secret alone worth the money you pay for the matrimony. The secret how to—no, no, I will not tell you what the secret is about, and that makes it a double secret. Hang it round your neck if you like, and never look at it; I don’t say that will not be the best, for then you will see many things you don’t expect: though if you open it you may break your leg, è vero , but you will know a secret! Something nobody knows but me! And mark—I give you the Breve , I don’t sell it, as many another holy man would: the quattrino is for the matrimony, and the Breve you get for nothing. Orsù, giovanetti , come like dutiful sons of the Church and buy the Indulgence of his Holiness Alexander the Sixth.”
This buffoonery