Marcello! Are you loopy? ” I reeled on the inspiration of the way a lot he should have spent on a one-karat emerald. “Where did you get this? ” “Oh I picked it up in Colombia,” was once the answer. “I was once going to have it set in a ring—your engagement ring—but you may besides have it now. ” My engagement ring? Wasn’t this leaping the gun someway? Neither the notice engagement nor the note marriage had handed his lips thus far. “Well, you recognize that task I utilized for? I obtained it, yet it’s now not in Milan anymore. It’s in São Paulo, and so as to come to Brazil with me, we need to get married first. or you won’t get a place of abode enable. Hai capito? CATS I N T H E TOW E R AND canine within the mattress 35 I received it. This used to be no longer the romantic concept I have been dreaming of, however it was once common of Marcello, continuously choked with surprises. We had spent in basic terms seven weeks in each one other’s corporation on the grounds that we first met, and now he was once ready to take large leaps within the dark—to get married once we nonetheless not often knew one another and to migrate to a rustic neither folks knew whatever approximately. whereas I reveled on the reckless flip our lives had without notice taken, Marcello was once in a rush to get the formalities over and performed with. the assumption of a white marriage ceremony with the entire rite and fanfare didn't attract both folks. along with, as Marcello mentioned, there easily wasn’t time. His new employers in São Paulo have been awaiting him inside of weeks. We needed to get married and subito! A sign up office rite at my mom and dad’ domestic in Beaconsfield, a quiet commuter city outdoor London, appeared the main useful answer. The Sicilian kinfolk will be sorely disillusioned, specially Maria, who had doubtless been laying marriage ceremony plans for weeks, if now not months. in spite of the fact that, sooner than the marriage in England we might visit Sicily jointly to have a good time the scoop with the relations. even though Maria wouldn't detect her dream of a marriage within the chapel at Santa Maria, she might throw a prenuptial social gathering for us and, most vital, she could have an entire week during which to introduce me to the Vaccara kin as her official daughter-in-law. while i used to be lucky in that I had mastered Italian through then and the Sicilian kin had already taken me lower than their wing, Marcello nonetheless had dragons to slay. He might now need to current his credentials to a number of eccentric, opinionated, intellectual, joke-obsessed adults—the vendor kinfolk. (Charles was once in Bangkok on the time, so Marcello used to be spared the possibly so much intimidating stumble upon of all. ) And he must face this problem with a significant handicap—lack of English, as his abilities in that division had stepped forward little or no seeing that our first assembly. I anticipated him to cower in worry on the bold lineup. He did no such factor. a great deal conscious of the 36 CASA NOSTRA value of relatives, he was resolute to make a bella figura—a sturdy influence. He got here to the first assembly dressed to kill, his lanky shape trigger to its most sensible in a tweed swimsuit from one in every of Milan’s smartest tailors and wearing a definitely discreet tie and conventional English brogues.