Alpha Book

He liked the melancholy old man and
spoke to him, offering to share his table.
Spicca hesitated a moment and then accepted the invitation. He deposited
his hat upon a chair beside him and leaned back, evidently exhausted
either in mind or body, if not in both.
"I am very much obliged to you, my dear Orsino," he said. "There is an
abominable crowd here, which means an unusual number of people to
avoid--just as many as I know, in fact, excepting yourself."
"I am glad you do not wish to avoid me, too," observed Orsino, by way of
saying something.
"You are a less evil--so I choose you in preference to the greater,"
Spicca answered. But there was a not unkindly look in his sunken eyes as
he spoke.
He tipped the great flask of Chianti that hung in its swinging plated
cradle in the middle of the table, and filled two glasses.
"Since all that is good has been abolished, let us drink to the least of
evils," he said, "in other words, to each other."
"To the absence of friends," answered Orsino, touching the wine with his
lips.


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