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126 228 . the miracles of antichrist
up the mountain. It has not occurred to me to
seek the great philosophers villa in Gela."
" But Gela is an interesting city," said Donna
Micaela persistently. " They have no special
outhouses there. The swine live on the ground floor,
the people one story above. They have also an
infinitude of swine in Gela. They thrive there better
than the people, for the people are almost always
sick. Fever prevails continually, the malaria does
not leave it. It is so damp that the cellars are
always under water, and the marsh-mists envelop it
every night. In Gela there are no shops, neither
police, mail, doctor, nor apothecary. Six hundred
people live there, quite forgotten and barbarized.—
You have never heard of Gela, then ? "
She looked so honestly surprised. Cavaliere
Pal-meri shook his head. " The name, I presume, I
have heard-"
Donna Micaela cast a penetrating glance at her
father. Thereupon she bent quickly towards him,
and drew out of his breast-pocket a small curved
knife, such a knife as is used in pruning vines.
" Poor Empedokles," she said, and at the same
time her whole face sparkled with roguishness.
" One believes oneself ascended to the gods, but
Etna always throws up one’s shoe."
Cavaliere Palmeri collapsed as from a shot.
" Micaela," he said, with a faint attempt at
warding off, like one who does not know how he shall
defend himself.
But she was instantly just as serious and innocent
as a minute ago. " I have been told," she said,
"that a few years ago Gela was almost perishing.
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