We were shocked, too, in our souls to see the pure
elemental flame shaken out of his gentle, sensitive nature. By his
slight, crinkled laugh we could see how much he had suffered. He had
gone out and faced the world, and he had kept his place, stranger and
Dago though he was.
'They never came after me no more, not all the while I was there.'
Then he said he became the foreman in the store--at first he was only
assistant. It was the best store in the town, and many English ladies
came, and some Germans. He liked the English ladies very much: they
always wanted him to be in the store. He wore white clothes there, and
they would say:
'You look very nice in the white coat, John'; or else:
'Let John come, he can find it'; or else they said:
'John speaks like a born American.'
This pleased him very much.
In the end, he said, he earned a hundred dollars a month. He lived with
the extraordinary frugality of the Italians, and had quite a lot
of money.
He was not like Il Duro. Faustino had lived in a state of miserliness
almost in America, but then he had had his debauches of shows and wine
and carousals.
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