He paused a moment to caress his hair.
"Father," said Alfredo, "I love you."
" And Luigi?”
" Oh, him too. Maybe more than me. He was jealous of your new bride and baby, although he always told me we had to love you and please you even if you seemed to ignore us completely. He studied the harpsichord only because he hoped to make you feel the music that you like one day. You should see his rooms, Father: they are full of the little things you gave us when we were children and so many objects that belonged to you and then threw away. I teased him about his mania, and he was offended because for him it was a ritual to collect them and keep them ... you are an idol to him, father.”
The king swallowed several times to keep his cool and pretended to concentrate on the game of chess, but the
