“In fact, I shall drink several, and perchance the wine will send me straight to Paradise that I may meet her in person and …” Friar Lorenzo sprung forward and hissed, for no apparent reason, “Before it throws you from grace, Messer Romeo, bridle your tongue!” The young man grinned, “… pay my respects.”

“That is the lightest coffin I have ever carried," observed one of Romeo's companions. "Your [bell]ringer must have been a very slender man, Friar Lorenzo. Make sure to choose a fat one next time that he may stand more firmly in that windy bell tower.”

“Careful!” warned Friar Lorenzo, trying to close the lid. “You know not what infection those lips carry!”

“It is a great honor to meet you, young man. Now, here is someone very special that I want you to meet.” And she pulled one of the little girls into her lap, and said, as if she was presenting a wonder of the world, “This is Giulietta.” Romeo stuck the biscotto in his pocket. “I don’t think so,” he said. “She’s wearing a diaper.”

“I am sorry I didn’t tell you the truth before. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to. You kept asking about Romeo and what he was really like. I was hoping that”—he smiled wistfully—“you would recognize me.”

“Giulietta pressed the letter against her heart. "I know what you are thinking. You wish to protect me...And you think Romeo will cause me pain. Great love, you believe, carries the seeds of great sorrow. Well, perhaps you are right...but I should rather choose to have my eyes burnt in their sockets than to have been born without.”

“We have come here for revenge,” Giulietta corrected him “and to gut that monster, Salimbeni, and string him up by his own entrails …” “Ahem,” said Friar Lorenzo, “we will, of course, exercise Christian forgiveness—” Giulietta nodded eagerly, hearing nothing. “… While we feed him to his dogs, piece by piece!”