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Don Abbondio could command and entreat her to be silent, and she

could reply that there was no necessity for inculcating a thing

so obvious and proper, but certain it is that the secret remained

in the heart of the poor woman as new wine in an old cask, which

ferments and bubbles, and if it does not send the bung into the

air, works out in foam between the staves, and drops here and

there, so that one can drink it, and tell what sort of wine it

is. Jervase, who could scarcely believe that for once he knew a

little more than others, and who felt himself a man, since he had

been an accomplice in a criminal affair, was dying to communicate

it. And Tony, however alarmed at the thoughts of further

enquiries and investigation, was bursting, in spite of all his

prudence, till he had told the whole secret to his wife, who was

not dumb.