Carmella Commands
manage, had won what in later years he considered his greatest victory.
Upstairs, the door to Miss Silva’s room opened swiftly and Carmella entered with firm feet. Walking straight to the desk she said:
“I’m sorry, Miss Silva. I oughtn’t to have sassed you. The Nile overflows its banks to make money for those who plant early vegetables.”
Miss Silva, wise with experience, had the grace not to laugh.
“That’s good, Carmella!” she said heartily. “Now please take your seat.”
The class was frankly disappointed that she gave no evidence of physical punishment, and wondered again how this daughter of Tommaso Coletta managed to come through so many encounters with the law so little scathed.
Carmella drifted through the rest of the day’s lessons. In spite of her promise, her mind was still at work in the contracting business. Particularly had her talk with the principal focused her thoughts on a recent interview—the only one in which her father had asked her to interpret.
It was at the Florentine Trust Company, not far from Doty Street, where she had gone with Tommaso to help him establish credit in a bank where he could do business in his own tongue.
All she remembered was the picture of a heavily
[178]
