Summary

Portrait of Giovanni Verga Giovanni Verga Under the Shadow of Etna — The Bereaved

Comare Sidora interrupted him,—
"Think of those who are more unlucky than you are!"
"No one is, I tell you. I shall never find another wife like her, I shall never be able to forget her, even if I married ten times. And this poor little orphan will never forgot her, either."
"Calm yourself! You'll forget her fast enough. And the little girl will forget her, too. Didn't she forget her own mother? But just look at poor neighbor Angela, whose ass is dying, and she hasn't got anything else. She'll never be able to forget it."
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Giovanni Verga Giovanni Verga Under the Shadow of Etna — The Bereaved

Any other woman, except an aunt, would have cast an evil eye on her, the poor little orphan!
"If you asked curátolo Nino for his third daughter, it would make things all right, both for the orphan and for the dowry," suggested la Licodiana.
"That's what I say. But don't speak of it to me, for now my mouth is bitter as gall."
"I wouldn't talk about it now," said comare Sidora. "Eat a bit of something, compare Meno. You are all tired out."
"No! no!" returned compare Meno several times. "Don't speak to me of eating, for I have a lump in my throat."
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Giovanni Verga Giovanni Verga Under the Shadow of Etna — The Bereaved

Comare Sidora, when she had got the bread safely out of the oven, also came into the yard with the cousin Alfia, who had put on her new gown and wore her silk handkerchief on her head, all ready for a bit of gossip, and comare Sidora said to compare Meno, drawing him aside,—
"Curátolo Nino won't give you his third daughter, for at your house the women die off like flies, and he loses the dowry. And then la Santa is too young, and there's the risk that she'd fill your house with children."
"If only one could be sure of boys! But there's always the danger of girls coming.
Source: Wikisource

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