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Pointing a finger at the crowd, with knitted eyebrows under a black crown of hair, Santina spoke vehemently: "How many firesides are there in Arsoli? Get the men who are responsible for a fireside to say what they want done with this field, not suckling babes such as you." The youths halted, uncertain what to do. Said one: "We have collected 557 signatures in favor of the football field." Santina cried: "There you have it—500. There are only 300 firesides in Arsoli. There is no way of telling whether those signatures are of responsible people or babies! Responsible people know that to cut down olives is like cutting off a man's feet. A man needs feet to stand on, not a ball to roll over on."
Prince Massimo tried to argue with her: "But we must take the boys—all children—from the road, give them a place to play." Stubbornly Santina answered: "You can't cut off a man's feet." However, the youths decided to entrust to Prince Massimo another mission to Rome. Communist Fabio Alimonti said to the prince: "The duty devolves on your honorable and ancient family to provide." Vittorio muttered: "The Socialists will get the field."
Last week Vittorio was still exercising the patient tactics of Fabius Maximus Cunctator. Moodily he waited in Rome's ministerial antechambers for a chance to put Arsoli's case once more before indifferent government officials. After another fruitless day, he drove back to Arsoli's graveyard hills, ghastly white under the summer moon. He wished Fabius had never saved Rome; he wished above all that old Cunctator had never taught Romans the tactics of delay.