"Quite right, yes; but it is not a sin, Professor, to turn the handle of a cinematograph machine," Signor Cesarino observed.

"Not a sin? You ask him!" said Pau.

The little old man and the three old maids gazed at me stupefied and dismayed to see me assent with a nod of my head, smiling, to Simone Pau's verdict.

I smiled because I was picturing myself in the presence of the Creator, in the presence of the Angels and of the blessed souls in Paradise standing behind my great black spider on its knock-kneed tripod, condemned to turn the handle, in the next world also, after my death.

"Why, of course," sighed the little old man, "when the cinematograph represents certain indecencies, certain stupid scenes...."

The three old maids, with lowered eyes, made a sign of outraged modesty with their hands.

"But this gentleman would not be responsible for it," Signor Cesarino hastened to add, courteous and still friendly.