Faldoni, parts 2944 - 2947

 2944. People in possession of this sort of thinking were never confused by such obvious contradictions as: “Since we all die, we must all be guilty of the selfsame terrible  sins what ever they might be.” 

 2945. How did the cantaloupe question come about? It was an upsetting event that occurred at the institution about twenty years before the events of our story. There was an elderly monk who had always seemed a little odd to all the other inmates of the institution. He was one of those sorts that often could be found talking to himself.

  2946. At that time, he was about seventy, and although he sometimes talked to himself,  he was well enough aware of the norms of his polite society to know that it was looked upon askance and so when his private soliloquies were notices he would stop speaking, look away and assume an attitude of serious contemplation of whatever happened to be in his immediate environment. 

2947. For example, one day he was standing in the rose garden in the middle of a winding path and he seemed to be engaged in an argument with no one in particular. Some other visitors coming upon him unexpectedly heard his exclaiming, “He never would have gone into that trade except for his missing finger, that missing finger pointed,  indicated, suggested that it was the only way to determine what was ...