“drinks in company”

—On his way back from America,
the Marquis of Furgentini, known
by everyone as Lord of the
Barbaìni, started to talk about his
thousand ventures, pouring his
fellow citizens water, hops
and quenchers.

As naughty fate would have it,
something quite bizarre
occurred.
When the glasses were raised
to toast, a large snail fell right
there gross: to hide the
embarrassing event quite well,
the Marquis drank as if
nothing had happened, no yell—