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a jettatore
265
" Enlightened and honorable Signora, I remain
Your humble servant,
" Falco Falcone."
" Passafiore, a nephew, has written the letter."
Donna Micaela tossed the soiled letter aside. It
seemed to her as if that was a death-warrant for the
railroad. To-day, however, she would not think of
it. Now she had her bazar.
Immediately after that her road-builders Giovanni
and Carmelo came. They wished to advise her to
procure an engineer. Presumably she did not know
the nature of the ground on Etna. First it was lava,
then ashes and then lava again. Should the road
be laid on the uppermost layer of lava, or on the
ash-bed, or should they dig down still deeper ?
About how solid a foundation was necessary for a
railroad ? They could accomplish nothing without
a man who understood this.
Donna Micaela dismissed them. To-morrow,
tomorrow, she had no time to think of that to-day.
Then Donna Elisa came with still worse news.
There was a quarter in Diamante where only poor
and wild people lived.
These wretches had become frightened on hearing
about the railroad. There will be an eruption and
earthquake, they had said. The great Etna will
submit to no fetter. It will shake off the whole
railroad. And the people now said that they ought
to go out and tear up the road as soon as a rail was
laid on it.
An evil day, an evil day! It seemed to Donna
Micaela that she was farther from the goal than ever.
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