The VILLA


VILLA
(Sdin
The
When I arriveali noticed that the house was cleaner than
I knew it last year.
This is. due to the new manservant
called Gino whom I saw serving at table - it surprised
hol
me - when I came into the room from the garden. He was
dressed ina white and blue striped jacket, like the
silent manservant one mignt find-in a presperous
cenglishmanla-pilla inthe south
: He was the
peleyse
-of_Italye
first person I saw wheh"I got to'the top" of the steps.
There is never : much light. over the dining. table,;and he
her
wa's' standing Just' ab' its edge, small, with' a rather prim
mouth and crusading.eyes. A great cry went.up from the
tablè, from Marcella, from Fabio, Giuseppina, Stefanella
Sassa, Fiora Milla and
and. I
Maurizio,
forgot the manservant
at once. The'little boy, Carlo, is now eight and I-was
Surpnised that he hid. his head in his mother's i lap when I
camé in, thén"ran half-way up the stairs in the dim light,
and crouched there, watching me while Iansweredall their
"questions at the table." Ieay this-surprised me because
I-remember-him.from,last year-as xiptent: X X
*XI mMR axas
iximagihmxthe more "cruelthan shy, but now the shyness
)seems to have grown, and withit -
her
V. graciousness
sometimes. That is like all of them.
Oriental Barbarians"
J. calls them, but somewhere each_of theme even the"Count)
himself; whommost people finayaheavy and supid, has this
gift of grace: there is nothing benevolant about it, but it seena
dp civilisedf like ak eudden acknowledgement of-ths-values
TIREC
civilisation/before the/aritantal,snoutinsak.shouting starte-again.
JoSoT lave oftén looked at their hands.
They are thick and
if extraodidarily à
juoll 0
heavy,, very.wide at the_baseg.11ke.t the hands
of butchers.
d -Only Marcella, the camoke'vife, andXDREXARXHBEXABRXRORS is
different, and she is the power of the family. Everything
starts from her, and. she can.bring.lighb.and darkness to
them just as she wishes. When she goes away the family
relapses into its proper. uglinesss People mope about the
"house nervously, there "i's a sense I of waiting for something,
the servants are hostile and rebellious, there, -are constant
quarrels, and I think only the certainty of Marcella's
- return keeps them togetherat. all. Under: Marcella's
very
'cool eye, sitting at the end of,the table, they become
violent. children who are allowed. their
byt, no
say
more.
Marcella has l'ovely hands, unlike them, and strang sers are
always asking how she could have married, thewCount' a nd how,
Rare 'much more than "that, she could borne living with him so
si many. years.
She has always béen: disgusted.by him: in
bed,
and' sleeping with him, which happens rarely, is for her a
necessary penance.. i But she is. his. life. l:. The
spirit
out of him when she goes away. He is ainast frightened goes
when she suggests a holiday, for, herselfos Andin- this he
is like the two daughters, who share his great gamds and
nervous,.strained watchfulness; who like him
L a
have
momént ofinward peace, who have no sense of art at never all, a
like pappx creatures rejected bycGod,"1ying shs
alone, wondering
at all the mystery,out-tnorer wondering they are not part
Awny
of it, and often hating it.
It is to her that those three


turn for their peace. Only in her do they find it, and his
that is why, when she goes away alone, even if only for two
days, they are half panic-stricken, it seems/their feelings
will run away with them, that they have no form/wmatsoever,
no values to hang on to life by, nothing but. their hard,
brittle thoughts, about the state of the kitchen, at what
hour
the. time of the :next train in : from
Lendn
sleep,
and so on.
It is horrible to-be with them when she is
away, because they beçome, bad-willed.and rejected children.
They look malevolent and balt +brokeno Hke ailthose-who
feel untoved. And oftenjust beferershe- goes-away-they
aresulky, thoughshe works harder than any of them and bears
Marell-
the worries. of the house hold, and
her mind almos t
all
applies
'every..hour of the waking dayeto keeping them all out of debt,
ghe
and/apiolearly benefits from a holiday
But since
she is their peace they cannot treat her with the mercy they
Lnn ino sV would.give, to other. people.. Especially.Sassal sulks when
she goes away. Two or three days ago, when Marcella went
to Naples, she,refuged -to say go0-dmorning; andithia is
fell usually thecase, so that Marcella |feels-somretimestan
unbearable guilt)yhtte she A/awaysiaware ofithe resentful,
w mute eyes tha tZare waiting for her. Sassa is called the
*Inglese" by the family, because:she 1s tall and thin and
has néver had a màn. This is why, they say, she is never
gay; after a certain age virginscare néver-gay.9 Her
sister, Stefanella, 1s much prettier, with blond hair
and. a,neat little. face.g + Young men.often fall in love with
i her'; so her 'company is less solemn and pessimistic than
Sassa's, and she understansrher mother batter-and-sutks
! much"lesswien she goes awayand is muah less jealous of
her enjoyment. Sassa. 1s,twenty-nine, and'Stefanella one
au or two yéars younger, yet neither of them goebut alone with
men. Sassa has a long,
jmelancholy facé,
not'atall
pretty,
'yet shaxhaaxanxaingangaxaboukzharzx her body has cool, gentle
lines, and there 1s.an,eleganc e tabout.her: which she could tum
> besints meeh-outef herif she-wantedto, if the spirit had sonehow
not been beaten. out, of as her. x But-Iatnint She is convinced
'she'is an ugly ersature Zunwanted by men and-therefore-she as
Mohine
pays no attention to, hefself,at- allbutyis. listlèss and
'tsually "can/hardly bear to mal ke the effort of opening
her mouth to, speak; Itximaaacadaaadabiatabadaedcaaadaded
baacbeaaadaddedcGthere is an 2a28agaea8Be8canacadesac
spsengagncnen unfathomable, and dark a) par thyr in-her: which is
like the silence of the sky. I think the rest of the
family made fun of her looks when she was a child and S he
seems now to want to cancel herself out as a hamam-creature, an
bheis
towhom-it-ipossible totalk-and-smila, so_awarei6-ehe
ias)
Jof Stefahella's prettiness, abacacadacadaeacheg a light
which dims her even more, sebding her back into herself.
But perhaps apart from Marcella she is.the only person of
i.u quality among them. - She holds-her own counsel.
She feels
hate like the others, and the, need to ber cruel like the
others, and
at the same th-mobd-toterytonrobhor-tunon-baing. time
But
there 1s a brooding quiet in
her, a


Cel c yo
resignation, a sure knowledge that no Joy will visit hero
whieh-wisepeople-somatimes-have,
When there is hata in. the house it comes most from Sassa,
Stefanella and-Signnora-Mariay the grandmother. The
ha ted/is bitter, sneering and murderous, anditis so strong
and sure, so deep a: necessity in, each of them,: that nothing
anybody could do-could abate it. I have seen Signora
henar Maria,)a small, fat woman in black, dusty, threadbare
clothés down to her feet, sitting in the kitchen screaming
k with rage, her mouth in a; kind .of horrible grin, and tears
pouring down her face,stamping her feet up and down on
the stone, floor as she shouted,
setsd
"Iam a, Countess!
A great
deal "of the hate and persecution. in the house issues from
her, and.she. tries to influence. her. son against-other people,
especialiy against people whom Marcella likes and offers
J hospitality, to. In this zegeagec Signora -Maria achieves
a revênge against her daughter-in-law, who she feels has
-i not been a gondand proper. wife. - The Count listens to
only "half what t she says, but nevertheless he has been
huyh sufficiently hurt/by his wife -daring" the last. twenty years
to'hear that' voice as abalmg as pity for whathe has
suffered., Some people say, that he?ys. too.stupid to. have
suffer'ed, but that 1s untrue. Stupiidty is the gift
for insulating. oneself against sufferingsand zheis not at
all insulated, but very vulnerabla.
Last year, I remember that Signora Maria often attauked
1 111 Maurizion, the"tburtear-jear old son who shares Marcella's
grace and ease,and. her. inward
He 1s.slim,
peace.,
quite
tall for hisage, and 'handsome ih a rough'way, nd his hands
are not those.of a butcher. I noticed, very,soon after I
d u saw him for" the 'first"time how littléof hi's father he seemed
to carry in him, how rebellious he, was, how quick to
understand,sunlike"the others; "and' also there was a tender-
ness. about him.of which the others had., not the slightest
trace, in thetrotaracteret Li He' is deliberately rude to them,
especially to the father,, and, he. is. always shouting,
trying
if G. to"dadge money or digarettes, eàting great chunks of bread
and marmalade or tomatoes covered with o11, and papperand
I ri 3 salty and when' het walks it 'i's' with a comic roguish slouch
us ually with theyshirt ha nging out of tha-back-or his
"troders. C Signora "Maria wedlalways "complaining that he was
dirty at table and. that his. ma nners were.nothing. compared
Locrgs)
-with 'those of his little brother, Ctalo, though'at that
timepl lastyeart Carlo was. much more violent and bad-willed.
If Carlo cried Maurizio" was always blamed, and the family,
with the exception of Marcella and Stefanella, would
bear-dowh-on him, 'calling him villain and aeadaogcaoaage
soabada wretch.
I noticed that. Sassa often lectured
him, asif' for the. pleasureft exercising a little humble
power over someone elee-nowand then, but the:leader of
the persecution, if that word is'-npt too strong for it,
was probably esain Signora Maria. iL Por,at-was-seid that
The -
: Maurizio" wad net the Count's son, but the offxpring from
one of Marcella's. o
love affairs,with apea'sant 1iving
nearbyo
dfini


This must be one of the scandalls which people in Rome speak
of in connection with Marcella.
It is certainly true that
Maurizio seems to have nothing in common with the Count,
while the youngest child has the same ra1 ther loose face,
the same-airof helplessnese, andthe same pride. Both
Marcella and Stefanella tend to protect Ma urizio, and for
: this reason"he loves them-both, with'a quie t; absolutely
confident tenderness. People,say that the peasant wanted
- to have the childe but tha't theCount had insisted on
Jhicl). keeping him,in the family, after endless arguments/with the
peasant rudely bangssrs the table ahd "making all sortsof
threatetedf The Count has never been known to lay a finger
vidmner)/
'on à chila: or, A man, "ànd he' is" eitker quite blind to
humiliation or has a, remarkable cap pacity for bearing it.
i He waits'for"things "to pa'ss' ovér, he always' tries to keep
out of quarrelg, and when-I-say ta-people.that there may be
: snithis.a-very-unustal wisdom and patiense they say, no,
itlis simply laziness and moral ineptitude. I.canrot cadu
trudecide. 1t -All I know- is that when headsedeadacmoaeagade
aadda I ever get indignant at table. because of, somebody
D "sirudeness-1t is. hewho makes the soothing, tactful
remark and helps ybf back to calme and + I bell eveshe is
very-seneitive-to-breaches-of rettquetter Despite the fact
Jeen t
that lecherous, thoughta/are in his mind from onenof the day
G)citostheeo others-despite L the 'fact 'that' he hoard's photographs
of beautiful women (whieh he himself has takent and for all
kis hed casm 3 il.know. poresi.over- themi for hour's 1h/silenee (Hé S ertainly
very jealous fer them and haye never known him shew-them-
Ff C to male-t she #-horkirled'bydiry stories at the table
and by any laught MA about matters of the
inr
- - body.e 1
Whehever. pretty young women come to, the house hginvites
(J alim them either tolook'at his photographs, which people say
really are spperb and of the most beaytiful/yomen in the
9 ansiaphi
city,cor else'to pose "for a a *photgraph themselves.
flirts with them, smiling-more thanhe rusyally does, and te
n. CU
to appear gentleand dolicitous, though gentlenesa-teu
and solicitousness are rathen foreign to tris character. him.
He-alewaysaske them 'to sit'next "to him at table, then
constantly pats their arms, ape touches. théir hair,
lightly,
Did and "puts'his hand oh their shoulders Usually they suffer
this ina-bowedy-oh way, for. after all. hefas the-chfeg of
7 d kthe-house; abaagbaoncabadacaeacadadas ata daeg and deeide es Hhe
lebee,
that on their second visit-they, Wit keep away. from hins he saire
Healso asks them to 'come for 'a 'ride with him on his motor-
zuetr, eyele, and if they agree, which they do very, seldoms
mostof them "having-been warned about it), he takes them to
a long deep-green field a few kilometets tothe south and
tries to get them to lie down with him.
Iall the months
I'have spent in this house I have. only knowh one woman to
:1 go'with him, and she had known him for somel years > He
is,bald and has white, staring eyestandi a Jrather loose
091 mouth, and hë walks with his back very straight, as he
used
to in the military processions)" All over'the house
wher Le war te Kiys eseor.


there are photos of him in officer's uniform. Most
women, especially the young ones, find him a little
frightening, and-vulgar, and Marcella has told me that
when he was young he was brutal with her in love, and
that he has always disgusted in bedk I wonder whether this
pmoe
It is
thatrhe was
tal
Loannot-imaginett.
her
(r Andt kEveP trust wha t. awife says about
husband
then
provided she doeshot love him: Ifshe doesnot love Le i
tim hebecomes forr ner the. personification.of all her
disappointments, and failures, he becomes simply the-chief
element - re
adream
anasies,
private.te:herself-
He-becomes her excus e for not ha ving achieved her proper
life.
He likes to keep on the right si de of religious
, Le iL1 dogma evenin his lecheriess. and I have heardfexplain to /hin
young women, -or rathen imly to-them, how right and good
doucacacait would be to let: him,love them since
suet
he is
an important figure in the Churhet as ifsomehow it would
syl. J. bring, them nearer God,or at: least/get themaboltuniofor
Hifei The ôther evening I heard him tellog a pretty
English.girl, Leeningformard :at her+side andurairine his oot
blenar ca
fingers down her throat arery lightly, asi to
her
give
JIJ r a first tempting taste of what
he:Would..do later, orany
timer apst a irs I heard rim telling trer that she must'not
: be offended if, he:kissed, her since:God hadimadesher a
woman, intended her to be an object of love for men, the
L mother of ichildren,rthe bring er of.peace. and-softness, and :
acadadadmeadasacadamanaceasbanaagodoavadabaoremoacabaoremodade men luustiv
-nr: if :. must not withdraw from.them-and behaveitoo formally, witt Heu
Hespec ially if theywomen happened to be beautiful ("as you,
lo-g) T my-dear,, ane"),,and thateit: was better rto riskoffende
plaa
tby(seizing the womarts head as-he-did and (putting a kiss
3 first, on her forehead.and.-and.thenionuher lips 1 than -fail to
enhance "a woman's beauty by calling attention to itf
nipi
Ustally the.women rlaugha becateerthey-eg-ssee sdrclearly
that"he has no power of love, for women,
only localised and
rather dark. needs,, which cadbe fulfilled
KEl
whores, and ugly ones at that.
Sometimes quitéeasily his
flirtations
are a game, but at-other times, when-he hasbeen
3.. very -er tic, Ihave known him simply stand in front feeling of
a. woman-and stare,atyher,t hips-or
Wn, : her' flesh with her eyes, enjoying -her the breakaz-boring-into dark fanatelenlocked
thin his head, however many. perople. there : e in the
PHS
drewing room.
tin snz
The - family laughs ata rese flirtations.
i"And Marcella
fau
1snot" at all jealous, of thomy saàgaadcadacacacadaea gamama
adgoschesodfendedear-Only if she' flirted 'would thè
family
Htady porsbogte ate look up, speechlessly, watching their beloved leaur
going away from
thacfoothold-
hely. L 3 and they
them,
of-their world'ceased
wouldsuik, make anoise, fili her with,sname.
When ia asked xher thejother
day how'suc h 'ugly, reteless
people could ever have issued from her,
Lo' LOAL
because they were conaéived - without love. she.said,"ItAs Only Maurizio
was"conceived in love, however
her same peace, the same slight. momentary. dréaming T And he. has
béyonaness.


I noticed him this morning sitting in an armchair by the
hearth doing his schoolwork, and; for a time the house waz
in utter silence.
He was looking out of the French windows,
lost, and the room seemed to rest in its silence, sure and
easy, and I thought how none of the others could ever be so
lost as that, could-eversiteasy like-that, could ever/let
a room achieve such, & peace.
In fact, th&se others seldom
sit down for more than a: few momentsh They walk about
tat
quickly and awkwardlyy |snapping the'ir short, quick, sharp
is sentencus in theip ugly voices. Ebacadaeacadatadagadac
Ayavayabayaeavaratatayiudyatavrenyapirapevavanivasivavatatay
apatmaabgbanddadadaadcfondadapacadapacodabmoadiadeacandcabacdegcaea
heangoswacabadaoa -
U -e
I leve seen a look of tenderness in Stefanella's face
- vonly concerinythe last few weeks, land that was yesterday.
Qtherwsie There were a number of people in to tea, and one
of thesa, as smiling,.aunt-like, constantly nodding and
surprised woman, was talking to her closelys) Ebaaabaedaneadac
1 Rsataupvaxavaxayavafavaravapavaraugta vavamataua taugyavatatatagavavayach
aaddacacaca TEK Stefanella fetched then tiny, shining,
oloalis it compact: radio shenbought some mohths 'ago to/putby herbed
avha witha golden areil and a green leather case no bigger
than a woma n's. handbag :is She plugged it.. in, 'pufled out
the aerial and.then-begante show the ether woman-how-many
ciil wavelengths.there mere and-what volume itwas capable of,
turning dials and pressing spring-buttons.
And all the time
she played . withi her shining little boxi ând : the other woman
clapped her hands together and uttered aunt-like cries of
1 astonishemente there.was/bhat tender, bemused,Ashy look on
her face, Bagt as ifuthis was all her own handiwork, thn
something. toi do with her i personally, with her éwn'prettiness
and health eveno net tet acommodity bought
a shopo wittr
.or effort
C no,diffuclty
at all.> I-do'not think -I ha ve ever
seen her face 8o shy, like that of allittle girl being priaesd
lrr
in front, of :too many relatives; for us ually her' face is
strained about the eyes, hard, seeming to dwell all-the-time
: iu" on,hard subjects,i.like how. muc h tèa thereis left in the
cannister for the weekend, whether the dogs have been fed,
: lic. whther she-hasitime : torthe local town for another electric
plug, whther the *servants? have been stealing.
Perhaps
0: L that is why,, ieven though.she hasa' pretty - face and a tidy
figure. Athough, having beenunloved so long, it has grown
awkward, her, breasts slack and -her shoulders bentis young
siy men are never very interested in her for longy lae could
- not give them peace- th-ohe-would-only - -work-very hard. > Iadl
Leard
would hate to be-married to her-beeause of her strong sense
ree
of-disguet, and as for La, he toldyeeterdey that he thought
she would' not bring forth a child asa restl Ltoflove, but
white: maggotsl fi for himher body
wawheleseme But they
a th: "detest Gactrother A She sata he 1B Dag dirty and that the Siamese
cat smelle/whenever it had been in'his room for long (implying
that Re AMsexually perverted); while he says that shehas a
L! >mind. a's: bigias his thmubna'il.
But Stefanlia has a certain outwardness which I like.
She watches other people, wants to know about them,and is
very seldom énvious of their pleasures. Perhaps that was
a le


taught her by Marcella, for it is'not true of the Count.
In fact, she is so content to wa tch other people that she
seemste cancels herself out, takil
n: a-nethingrsitting yal
by the wall SI urfing Hep party, for instance, and never dancing,
wanting-to-teep herselfwithdrawny just abif someone had
snvey
breathed it into her ears during the child hood-sleep that
she could/enter into life like other women, having children,
Lor
tal kiag trains alone, payiag her own bills and managi sagher
own house.? - She is. still nenity a'child, at the age of
twenty-eightg and atatavassuntal ki ngt yaual me v& tatTI - 'Am astonished
whenever Tsuddenly pealisethat she : has never once left/ this
house, and her room in this house, for more than a few nights
since.she.wasr-bornar If CI had stayed -in the part of London
where I wals born I think I should be mad or dead now. But
La :
that was different. There- are no horrible dark. streets
here, but. a vinegrove and orchard at the back! a gravelled
i : path leading up to a country raod, jand' far.in thé distance,
when the mist is not too low, the first white shining
J . buildings bf the: sityy.very clean and still. - But still I
cannot bear to think of someone living in her own family
beyond thel age of fifteen or so,J however-mugh ishe loves
her mother and father, andhowever good the air. I find
J' the idea of family horrifying. For me it per etuates
hatred and digsust, always and everywhere; those who want
L to show that it' is all very enchahting "have only iearned
aa deceit and humbug.
Yesterday Marcella and I- weré
'about the family,
how rude theycwere toJr, how they, BRASINE about him in
lursre, whispers, calltng him a Iwretch, a 'filthy,beast, a parasité,
Fhe
and how, shenever he came to meals theyfmade him feel alone
and unwanted; day afterrday even, apparentlyy biroughthe
tho t
long winter waen was not-hers. But after lunch yesterday
all
he "revolted and (swore that he would never come back into
fue Lewu S I
the ohuse again, that he never again wanted to see such
poeple.. Forit there had'been trouble the night before, after
Marcella had
to bed. J.
Caroulh
gohe
ca,e in and went straight to
U his room.without'saying goodnight to'anyone.- The Count
ran up to Marcella's bedroom and told her,, first, that J.
had.refused to. leat.dinneriwith them, -andsecondly' that he
had failed to say goodnight.
She shrugged and said it
J. Lu was simply; the. result of..the way - the family 'had been
treating him. But noen of the family could understand this.
They we ere.simply hurt that he
should
-ha ve' gone to bed without
saying goodnight. They said it was impblite, having thoughout
a winter, tneatea, him.like'a: dog- or'worse than a dog, as a
friènd of" his said, because a dog standga chance of some
kindness. between therkicks. So-after d. had revolted I
said to Marcella, "Tell them he is nevet coming back.
Then
they will see; what.theyi haverdone to the fellow. They will
realise how cruel they have been. It will. teach. them a
lesson." ( i
But a she saadacaoac. shook her head and said, not at all,
they, will
simply say -that.he: has'been rude by not saying
goodbye 1.7 after such hospitality and that/ he has hurt them.
and phen I asked her if: they had. no sense of other people's
feelings atall she said, "No, none wha tsoever.. - They would


be aware of the fact at they were hurt." They are like
animals who claw another one to death,-playing with him day
after-day-until_he-ia topweak to live, then aoapaaaaacncac
heaaasaca are not cowed and - a shamed, as animals can be, but
are simply sad that somepne has taken avay that moving thing
they could play with daylafter day.
She. Mereella thanadded that perhaps it was best to be like
that,: aware only. of:oneself, erying out when-one-wes-inppaing
relying on toher people's mercy, but hat ving little oneslef.
ButI said, no, there was nothing lucky about that, because
they must be unhappy people, being incapabale of love. I
remember she shrugge d and murmured, 'Unhappy no, but neither
juw) very happy: nor very sad,pon one level of ordinariness all the
time!" Then she added as she..went away. into' the kitchen,
and this surprised me, "People may as well be dead as live
like: that."
But-Ithink here
peall
asadness in the twogirls-
I have often seen Stefanella staring at: the floor, bent
forward a little, seeming whippedy smoking an American
cigarette, her: yellow bleached hair falling long down her
cheeks (in"a fashion that went out may years ago), ad
a terrible.darkness seeming to . surround.her. t There is
something about the silence of these two, sisters that 1s/sad.
Itrisfnet the eilence-efpeace.. -
It is the silence of people
wire are regretting s omething, and something which perhaps
they have neverthad. but of (yhese-existenée they. have had felt
a few dumb intimations, issuing from the dark, not told them
"en in words. ' In :the Count there. 1s no.sadness whatseever, just
as there is Tittle humour. He seems-to-ga.imrough life Awith
J S.4 his eyes,ifixed on.the.groung,. seeming et even
know there
is" a sky, excèpt as an idea: And though he
impo rtant
all B functionary in the nqaurhe,..he is notuin:the 'slightest
religious.
His God is a habit he has picked up over the
Fars Eboontears, nin
as,he tai picked . up: the habit of fliration. There is
"no beyondness in him atratl Ibave never seen aveaaaa
aoaendacgin his face'a vision even momentarily-reflectedy
Ahis That is why his company is suffocating, to almost everyones
and I kave often
thataifew
after
noticed
seconds
he has left
the table to go to bed Visitors ahev sat better in their
chira B and really smiled for the .first. timeg while the
talkgoes fast andnet -
eyery one of-them-had
L twa in a fonndhome again, after. being in this> S trange, brittle,
'bare, friendless world, H mat to ts the lackey of his own
I dark. thoughts, and. herr t vulgan who aintoltie-obirer people
ira way t hat ma kes no one laugh, who turn'ss the world into
a. chicken-run where: he,cl ucks. about achieving nothing day after
'day: Last year I remember Marcella leaning, over towards me
and saying.asabacaameadacabacaaadagalaeacheacengga as he
J. Ii opéned the d'oor into the room, #hen he comes it.s like death
passing overr the table.. 14 You-canisee
everyone"go stiff and a
bit afraid? P said hotkig ke tis,
:" i. Bat.évery, day, when-he comes in-for-iunch, he calls over
his younger sonland asks him what he has been up to, E8 pat ts
his, head.and kisses him, looko-surpridod)Eoo whites of his
eyes showing and his mouth drawn down when he is, supposed
and sometimes he pulls him on' to:
ton
his knee and tells him a


with grand thea trical gestures, his chin lifted
story
rhetorically, rolling out his r's, depicting
up, speaking and-couragep-80 that the child'stares apac into
great men,
vafabizabadgvatarava
his eyes and agayatavamathvataparal movement for fear of
toesnet dareste make a the-elightest
vanatatav
breaking the legend. vana apdvataralaueistonagaim) savavakaox And When Maurizio,
the-older uatarbsvayamanavarn boy, 'came in late yesretday evening he J wanted to
ANI %ekhow 'exactly where hel bad been and with wl hom. Far Yesterday
- Couk
was a feast-day, in the village,: and. down, by. the, fountain,
: where therearea few houses, a winty wooden village-hall
and a petrol-pump,
after. lunc h
R.crond@toilucteo.og, I Maurizio was
his first
for
games'"and competptions.
walering
suit, borrowed. from a rich young man, a. friend of Stefanella's, -
3E who happen's 'to' be abnormall'y small. The suit fitted
perfectiy, but his white shirt was: frayed,at..the: collar and
was too tight round the neck, ava taxavahanatavausvenavavenasathea
so he took off the tie, then, since, it.was so hot, the
"adjacket. Di Hé oame back' after dark, whén the fireworks
were over,, and dropped. straight. into,a chair, aadencabs
and xoadaraagdagaé than thecount began asking him the usualf,
quiet questions, Had,he.been dancing? zat whose house?
snfe-what! girls Were'there?" àid he ènjoy it? had he been
drinking,
he looked so tired?. how,many.6188s0g hadg
ure oti the. taken? Faro when°the"boy told him two large glasses he
shrugged and said, Well, that's.half-a litre, enough for
3 ri a.small-.boy not'used- fo'it! C Then he glanced across at
Iotrdis Marcella, with the very.slightest of;smiles, atithis moment
ute
fa-parteef the boy y'slife, with'no self, only fatherhood,
and murmured, "E sbronzo"- he'T drunk.: 3 Maurizio did
: canot denyb only - put his head a in his hands and 'yawned.
Then , suddenly, he got, upand, dashed awayto his bedroom,
swhere he.slept at Lonce. e Ilike the way the' Count screws
y b
up his face when he tes askeg, questions, asrif horcennotomd
L dli won.guite-underundersitandy Hast if- Aanrg piecing together a world he
left long, tong ago, as L.f it, hosa all a: slight disappointment,
as S." being -no. long'er a world "governed" by noble people. And I
noticed-that when the grandmother,asked, him who.had won
the greasy-Ipole competetion, 'he shrugged and murmured,
"Oh, some wretch.. - and.then- imitated, in the ugliest
* :ls ways possible, theaccents of'the peasantso r
LSTrOE
I think it "must. be. from him that :Carlo; the'little
eir has-Teàrnt his.Wondèrful mature gestures, as if he were boy,
ateholderand had an indisputablei placelin"the world. alsead,
5nd The:Count-has ta ught" him pride in himself, and.I rem ember
how one day not long ago. the child,rushed infrom'the
: cn kitchentafter-dinbg into
thë Passervants had told him to come
lunch, and cried. out with tearszin his"eyes,""A servant
myst inever ispeak-to m'e like that." The Count forbids
Marcella to lay a finger on the: children,
teoucinfor, them ito.browbeat him - and confuse him. and I have is easy
heard them shout at him,.and, then,the.grows
often
very
J to: calm-thàn"downs"a little afraid, for this is mild, trying
he (imseld hag taught thema They -havernoif fear- the,defiance of
1C - whatsoever and'when they really get beyond
him,
stert beha ving like
themselves and
devils Marcella takes them into another


10. wherer duehon the Count oannot see and gives them a thrashing
room
then
them. another thrashing if they
with a cané,
promises about it.
They fear both her and
oryor tellanyone
because they get beat tings from both.
Haacadaaa Setfanella,
tawaratavawaacaoa a
The
of a beating gives
fuwikou
tough posiiblbity edge to life that they/zrant, and I have seen the little
exs
boy deliberately annoy his mother at the table, putting his
bare, dirty: feet up on. the tablecloth. or, balacning on his
chair, so that she will give him a cuff.
Then, after she
has done it, heicomes and curls up in. his: chair, at her back,
with his hands roùnd hèr neck, and usally falls asleep like
that, and stays there until. Stefanella puts him on her
"shoulders and takés him up to bed. But the Count is a
loving outsider to them, and they, tell. him all. sorts of lies,
"sometimes"ih connivande with Marcella, knowing how credulous
he canebei.
la T I
Last night't the little boy and I were- the only ones
table for
all,the time. the (playedi the
Fhopt
dinner,sand
padrone," talking to me very politely, asking if I was
enjoying the spaghetti, calling: outnto :the servants in
a-loud; commahding voice, his little chin pushed forward,
and making them come firstto.
to ask.ifir wanted another
'lu -helping. And' they obeyed be-ne,t Towards the end of the
dinner he called .out for the last-time toElsa, Gino's
. wife, a"small, really animal creature with a man's voice,
and. when she came to Ithe table.she leaned ovérshim and said
12 quietly, ""Remember you' are nine and a half, nine and a half,"
but nevertheless she gave him the number cof stuffed tomatoes.
iiii i.che asked' for,'with acàc some oil and sauce, and she joined
in his game, though. 1t-was'npt entirely 'a.- game for her
: - i 5.. becau se of the way' he -sat, so authoratitively in his chair,
his back quite s traight, his - eyes clear' and 'black, never
looking up at her, but assuming, like all those acaaatac
used to leadership, thatfbr would..be. obeyed/to the last
detailst--Then "he "came: into mé room, which leads off the
dining room, and tola me about an visit. of:his - to Ponza,
Ake., a-tovely-lsland three hours boatride from Anzio,, how he
had seen a great ship,, the Cristopho Colombo; on' its way
4 to America,-and how*the driver nad throttled the
of the motorbaot as they drew near.to.. thev island engine
and how.. smoothly theytswerved towards the land, shore,
up and down slightly, amida sea utterly blue, the bobb2ing
rocks showing a strange réd under the water, soft and
shimmering, and the gneat stilligreen-and-borwa island green 7 hom
3 huge-and,humped -before them. - He asked me whether
was also an island in the sea,i as ché-bad-heard; and London I
LNo, but ithas a riverf Andcabacacacachondec
said,
go along it: He, wanted to: know whether these and boats boats
engines, : and- T'sala,Yes. He nodded and murmured,
had
attho-cellingy-los Douthe silent and hot'
staring
they: are motorboats) atonachiffe ?)
room, "Ah, then
moskya that he turned towards the- wall and went. scialuppety to
And after
a child, inva drifting, oarless soabaca
"slesp, like
motoscofi
and darkest of fivers, between meadaua rowboat. on the calmest
windlessrand unpeopled. I leaned back fields and trees,
feet up on the
5 L, > on my pillow, my
bed,
4 h
1 K
and.read
Tals
AA luncht
launches


MADame 11.
Bovary, then Sassa came in for her supper, knocked
ony my door and carried him up to bed. The rest of the
family were out.
The Count was at the sea with friends,
and would not be back until the last train at midnighto
and Maurizio was at the cinema, where a musical was showing,
and Marcella had gone with Giusppina and Stefanella to a
house at the back, oply fifty or so yards away, hehind the
vineyard, where they were invited to dinner and drinks.
While I was reading, after Carlo 'had been taken off to bed,
I heard laughter and music. coming from beyond the vines,
and I thought how this'sbund no longer made me feel lonely
and abandoned, as it used to once,L There was a marvellous
daduy
silence in the house, something very rare. The house is
capable of everything, has known everything from sadness to
brutality. The other day -Marcella came into my room at
sundown, after I had opened my atadawa shutters to let in
the'cool air,-and leaned out of the-window, looking at the
peach trees, with everything in the same uncustomary stillness
and :Bilencey-like thé-sighing
speak,
Hener
Esinule)
of/inddgrmiataanee
and said, "I love my house, you know..
It 'is true, these
J silent pauses make one love the house. Iremember last
night tenderly, how the pillow felt against my back, how
: I and the book and the silence and the 'slight wind which
went through the bushes just-below 'my window were all one
dream. J:was * in hi's noomy-and Ithink he had alréadu
gone to bed. He never comes into meals now. He told
Marcella yesterday that if she'felflike it she could bring
him hot food Anto his room, but only if she wanted, but
.he. wouldi no 1onger éat with the other members of the family.
When Giuseppiha heard this, during tea, when therel were
incin visiotrs, shel sighed andi-shook her head', "No, no, poor boy, ,
he can't do that... tl
And as they always.do she turned to
fu. I. Marcella .and. said,. "Yow-mustn't lét him do that...". and
Marcella answered sharply, "It ish't myf fault. C ft's the
C - fault of y-our mother and your brother. I've done my best."
A friend of John's has given him/bisuits, a little burner
to heat water on, a packet of tea, pears and peaches, J
a large
piece of cheese and a can to drink out of. So he can spend
all.day inthis room' without séeing anyone. He told me
he would only come out into th main room (drawing, and
dining room in one, where everypne sits and whera the
radio 1s), if Marcella,dnadacecacabaracadana, Giuseppina and
I.were there alone.
If he wants' to go for a walk he jumps
out of his window on to the gravel path, leaving the shutters
apanavava ta tatavaxave uapabavavanay unfastened' but with the:
appearanc e pf being closed, so that he can Jump back in.
Last night Gino, who so far had shown him only conetempt,
opened his Aoor quietly and with,a smile put down a huge
plate of spahgetti on his table. J."cannot: explain
but perhap $ adacamseadzeac Gino is suddenly sorty for this, him.
because he knows what poverty means. The other m embers of
- the family -- ap part from Marcella dnd Gisepinna T do not
se'em to realise his absence from the table.,
out of their. minds.: He is' nol longer there to Hehas play with, passed
"to hurt, to vent hatred on,. he no longer serves a purpose,


12. he is
Marcella foretold this. In fact, only
forgotten.
Maria, madel life bad for J.
She
the grandmother, Signora him.
Otherwise the Count.would have
incited her son against
Istayed under the influence
been silent and sononsgoseachoabada time
she can win him round
of his wife. 0 Given
and patience,
to anything, . L because she is wiser and more calculating. deal since last
Cout
His attitude towards. has changed a great
year, , and I am quite sure this.,s due,to her alone He no
longer watches meas-he-didy betere, and 'he sometime tells me
about. other
young women, which
confidences
people..especdally. he believed last
would have been 1mpossible before. Ithink
SOE
year that. I was making love either ram, to .his wife, who is
nearlt twenty years older than' me; or to his daughter, which
aty least/was feasible. Iremember how rsemetimes he used to
DN follow me about" "the house. and how he would always call down
te to. Marcella, and-me
X stayed,
others a Xa
1f/WA
ortalking Aehon.the.
I had 'gone to bed. He hated to hear us talktng in whispers,
rendlesety in the silence of the house,, and God knows what
he imagined in the dark of his bed. Now we - stay up talking
until: the early hours, and :he- - never oncevcalle out to her
she
some
Frr
that
must gét
sleep,,that shelaill be,fit for noth!
in. the morning, and that it is'not rashtgjatidsinpt right!
ICL: Somehow she has convinced "him of the sillness of his fears,
Aky)
and apart from: that. he hasiseen, me. with/youngi. women. from-the
- sity and héars I'am attracted to this one and not that, and
so, (i forth.
lomin i :
"During the day I am always given Stefanella's room to
work in, and. this was., the/dase last:yeare. - It always pained
I l J-him then; that"Tshoula be going into the women's quartersree
tospeaky with my,young. mannood..and.ueing : thetdressing-table
asa'deskand sléèping on thewbed after lunch. I worked
den hard last' year ando went out_ very: little,Jso he had more
opportunityto imagine me up to no goodA I remember one
evening reading, aloud from a book, alone. : inher room, and
"realising after' a time that anyone outside. wouldbe able-to Gald
hear me., Stefanella., wast ilateVthat Levening.ain fromowork? Lu
end-he-did npt-know thie. I heard him walk along the corridor
and,pause outside my door,.listening SJiI stoppsed reading
wen pi. "aloud;"and wondered "whether he thought that Stefaneiia was
Gt gitl
aleneinttheneeom with me, forst-waguthrity.minutéeer-so
past-her-usual time-ofcoming in.ad SoI decided to find out.
Igot up and, went jacrosssto. sthe-clavatory, w.hich is opposite
: : 'her door. "His bedroom is at the end of the corridor, and
as passed across
and
I glanced,to: mya.right
saw'him standing
SV there, "agd but'toning his shirt in the "mirror andcataadda and
at the same. time, staring; down.thei corridor.ud Ic 'wlocked the
Liniut lavatory door, then heardAwalk down to Stefanella's room, A
enter
then-leave: again and: go. back torhis
itlauskazay
bedrrom. After a" time I came out and'returned to my desk,
and frt I saw him standing, there: as,beforé; watc'hing meb +
Gui was sure that hehad come along the vorridor-looking, for his
daughter, to mal ke sure that wecwere talking alone together.
SBut-idoid/hot end' there. I heard him walk down to the
lavatory, 3 look, inside, than.he..suddenly'pushéd open the door
rur of my room, imitated a look of surprise when he saw me and
began, fiddling:about: useless; with:somel-càsed on
fi! JJ 1,1
theflooyg


Foit
Furapr
hodber /u the A5r wilt P
sna'd anquite sure that
thought Stefanella wasjabout
somewhère, either in my neom -or in-the lavatory, and for
that reason he decided to try both the ro oms at more or
jure lay lass the same_time, sothat therecodrabenodoubt what
soever. Thus, he judged her as a whore in his own mind,
though she. is not at all a whore, being a virgin, as I have
said, and a. woman rather disgusted with the body.
He made
her serve his own.darkness.. At_that_time he could not bear
the thought ofa young man in the neuse. He/wanted to
possess all the female fleshAwife, sister,or datghter, and
Seelhn
Jar
he-eeuld-npt-believe, think, that allthe time there wasnot
some lechery or other going one This-wes-mostly his ewn
darkness, but not entirely sOr
Last year I tAQAE ht him a
kind-of monster créating then world in his own/image, but now
I know
true,at-least not wholly true Because
thatuslspot
ulef
veryoften - had bsen-proved right in thepast, though
1 never about hie-daughter, At lunch last Sunday he was
1 talking to me about a young woman who lived in the city with
lcdungr
12i
ner mother, and said she was (very Italian indedd', that is to
say, (intelligent, passionate and cunning': no one knew
inn
how many men she hagp she was always secret in her comings
- Ropr
Land goingsiishé was"charming toveveryone- and gave the
impression of great sweetness and good will, but she was
- Pini capable: à of embracing a man .on Mônday évening and"not fesl lae
remembering it on Tuesday
morning,
mal king love onee out
Laf
of A whim and then: doagatataga: aatagavasopascpasdaagcahac aaacaagaa
adacedabacacdade looking ommeeent-aban-and lost when the man
suggested a.second timés : Seina wayhis
merely the resultof his own lect herous na t ures suspicitons-are-not oftenhe
has Watched-and-subgacted, then been proved rignt.
When
inollst year Giuseppina/said one evening that she wanted to sleep
downstairss he whispered without/" my hearing that it was. only
because she wanted me to seduce her,
When Maneelle F
e Hor
adadabachesegaidad ata a
Laughe and saia, How absurd 3
becauseG. is nearly
xty, but Mancella shook her head-and
( 3 murmured, No he's ri
atayn nas wer 60.
aaa ac atdekric ava detacagac apaRpdagaC 806699898096889
a gafeateldec arceaca dacste apsurac
a wavava yaha vàng varatawava tawavavndaya fafavavauae
baadanagadad.
Co I T € U
Yet no sooner have Iritten those wortds than I Keel
ckeales àt ain. that che is: always ina terrible darknees, 'that he is
) le
a Mnd of monater, and that he is hargly ever right in
a licatid anything: he. saye: let -alone in his darkést "suskicions.
a eou
What àe told me ast Sunday about the ybung woman.happens
wond
15 Rich to be wrong. - She only -likes. to keep her own"counsel, and
atavauhtavawkuavamàgay I realise how that he used those
inognay - words: intelligente, ardente e furha" # gaadacaoasadedadg
m which are striking, 1 Gagp a &e af tac axaxa Reand Adatinkdadgaddgk
his pun
agadacaaapaaadadadada erepgeed acacac a egaca kaca
inorder. th conceal his slownese and. stupidi idty, just as I
onler
am "sure he had' heard thek used by another man. I renember
how one. day he tooh the,same,young wwoman's: palmand read
Ge her iife
tau
infsilae in sglr
te - X nius. V
us sealise al
uus dees
Galle
jerchale
tiick
a Cuntis
Hat the wrld
dutt
dint
Jaloe,


Yet no s ooner have I written these words than I feel
again that he is always ih a terrible darkness, that he is
a kind of monster, and that his suspicions are never right,
because, springing from dis own darkness, where there is no
air or respite, they arel never about. the real world, never
about other people, onlytsymptomatic, like a running nose.
The young woman he spoke about: last-Sunday, saying she
was intelligent, passionate, and cunnings is very much alone,
neen ver
taat
roH other peopler in theway ohe
behaves keeping her own,goungel.,the kind. of
lisi J + yould go to witha Sefcret. Shë is tall, with pérson dark hair ozeym
came
/in natural rings, and,
Pabaeacafacd04ds0gs (
abgosbaberafacescabgaacamscacacaescmoaeacaea :
Euick and
though her face is full of movement,
Sinting)
edpeadadag smiling and
8h0 sel 21 V A
quick, Lher eyes are
and iseem trappéd ih theface, as (Ror
ulae if bhey were foreign te it, in dreadful
sereaming-
verg M
ernstotbe let - outi L And perhape athis
beeausb
nowsheis
untappy, having suffered in love,
But in her fact à ometimes
ecan ere isa dreadful wel
Hif - et ering, Jou and -knew-she-can-
Leens herdly bring herself to speak, as if. ste were. dragging herself
seup from. a' great black marsh" in
of some last night
of chaoso when-the passing of the rorld
mourned. Sa She
thus providas'the - T a milyl With" dh Ebportunity to hurt Roro
her image-even more,
inp her furt
-words, because
iJ She.offersunonresis tance et amd
sme 11
6 suffering in ot.her people, like the smett of deattr and are
Kay eem
J drawni to T
ve et catastrophe like beasss, on A T
feet, sniffing, their eans MEtE pricked
order ta deaua play
(L. 1 I 3.: 1 with thei corpse alit tlexa and/draw blood, and then get their pely
teeth Eto thez teshy t - keepthemselzas
trim hriving
prey) odi. .on mal ices with-sullen, heavy, pouting
T faces, like
people in an unspeakable
their pleasure deathlye and
asburned-I.. From Riora; Paty a"
paled woman who ipives in
spueg) a house only a few yards away, on, the. other, sideof the
Jou uvineyard, and-.who: has.n6"lovek for work, only the hours of
oyeny_day to spread before
endless tedium, sa
that
herselfin
she, wanting somé poorglittlo excitement in-the-endless
Cant!o
day, and. havinga good-brain, clear and shrewa, ,swill make
d the spark; for any malice that-hasto flame H eutof the
I mi
dark-heartsr She usually. comes in for tea afte ftre in
head
: si the afternoon, land' ale is'vitually one of the mBn family.
Her voice is harsh, and When,she speaks.-against people it
(M Ji has Arapscialloutting 1 tone; and Rdeems to issue from tare
place where Ismost
thers life)hse.refused her
seelur
everyth ing just -wha't'it has givenan bountyto other
And I heard her say the other day thatMaria
peoplet her
mindat all beautifulk bt bat
washpt(to
HLERRN
she had a loose mouth, too
large and open, at that t her hips were too wide; she said
walij 4t as.though she wer'e 'killing "her, with a
hungry revenge. And Nonna says.that, while.ishe kindof swift,
> Mana
yory
3 a personi ofi distinction, yet also she is a little
who
Csweet,
perhaps a littletoo Esweeti And .other
peoplesay', Oh,
:: Mrarials too'artificial in the way, she speaks! ttistrue
Manay
the effortte speak k8rsometimes'so- t erribl #
JCi S S
m hex
Maria,
tranded
land,
where 1
Diciu
lt thereidne martatlous boy,
SiMaid


where she looks
Ehodeachtadacaetensawdtchagoastataaoanontr. for him every day, but the air is empty of any sign of him,
that she has to rehearse her words and her gestures, and to
Some
make them oversweet, lest some of the pain well up and turn
into haared for them, the ones who are ugly becaus e they are
not him, that is, all thelother pec ople in the world. C
enjoybeing with her and talking to her-eeaude when we arelaloe
togethèr there is calm,ail-about us the rooms Where we sit
tirdaness, E certain
Oarequiat, hanause-ve-brar-s-cantajd
to each to her
eat
no tedge of-things, andtwe oan speak
J with e most extraordl nany intimacys having"nothing to lose,
MutsS
without Raty shame, knowing that the screta are Ci safely kept,
neves lalone: C Semetimes .we
C Jan becauselt the,other-perso onalway
& go to Momflat,where she lives with her mother, and we sit
Atree behind closed chutterse in the* hot half-darkhous
te te
€ af 5ernoon, with the yellow, slight:
lines of
sun
gleamingnt1
#1 showing-through batmeni the shutter-slats, her mother padeing
k softly across the stone kitchen floor, bringing.cool drinks,
Maur, zeadangcanacigcabacigoingrto Uhe-retrigeratori, -and at-ether times
N when itlls cool and the sun has.
gonenbehind the curved,
smooth blodkTofiflata close by; leaving the space between
in shadow, we sit out on the verandah. on, canvascf schairs, at
thesfoot ofistepaiTeading"down from thë kitchen, everything
about us et stone and cement, Hony, new., cut.off from the rest
1 win
of the city, a great static-18lahd of Lence, like a
memorial, with occasional Mawnsyes quarer, excellently cut
: andosmall, 2 and Fheréi andither'e young trees. The moment ons you
enterf this stone world of alats through'a gate; and along a
l3 special road, ther'e 1g'4'ner'coolness 'and quiet, and the
noises of the square quete close by. fall. back. t is so
210 3 dafferent-from this'house wher'e the' noise starts net-lang Som
hos
after dawn, with someone rushing in down the stairs, :
making
huch Jhard ar:souind_as-possible; with a
U kint of revengeful
Arso
enjoyment, ory with the deafening criessof, the child Carlo
D.1J uicalling cout iforwsmmetiing,or'arguing, er Wta the radio turned
on suddenly at full strength, oru witt Elsaithe, SerNEHt uaid
C.ru 2 - shouting for her son'to Gomet 'in - that déep, dry beast-voice of
hay - nd
hers: bm these are the things thieh enter one'srsleep, and if
ui iJ. ene thest sleptiwellyawelland- feeling on good terms with the
fleno
worla 9 HESH the better, but, - if oneddreams have been
damp andsheavy,1 fuli of dold eyes, full of grieving, and
lonely beyond-words, then, these inoisegsare onlyiaJfresh
SDT assault,. keepingothe wounds" open for the
day, as wezl as the
night.
Maua
1 Sh :
Acisacicyenagosatacaticsercsbisdadsendeonssbadaeadac
She told me a. few dàys ago thati she: c ould hardly bear
i talkingrto.the -Count'and hated it sepeeially, when he touched
ples
her or asked her to comeout with, himy forr awalk-ort on his
motoreyade:. - And -Wheh I"saia that he had Ealled -her
eInterligent, passionate.and cunning? she"aaad ànswered that
i he only .spokel tlike-this aaaondar because tewas astupid
ycotres man-and-anew-sty. hatisy. he-wished to giveithe impression
11.1 2 ofiintuitive -gifts,and 4 arewd, penetratin T
whereas he had simply heard.ysomeone use these intelligenee, words about
ianother-iwomah and had moacgoacada.decided
to.useethem


She said he created a
whenemer/ hebedkthe opportunity.
- where women had daily secret assignations,
concenderdacrennessapadanngacaca cc omplictaed-morid,
where words and promises
thereiwas
méant nothing, where
always subterfuge-and- to
sea
intrigue, where appearance was alaays strictly opposite
eff
be able to
the
ESIT reality inorder **-thento
penetrate it; after all, therewas nothing easier, he first
created the mystery where there was in truth nene,then he dail
nil
madea show of penetrating 5 He does it. like a
Eyn
trick, and' at first
realise that the
eonjuror's
onedeesnot
world he, has_created, is Edage fatse. C : Having; satdthat
Mardadacacac Maria used her mother as an exeuse and
Gonvinced you of aa
easy
to ahamshow-what
te st he was an excuse for 1 Sue. A
Cau
lowan
He calls, her (cunning because he cannot allow himself
tow-belleve that ilike 'all "typical Italian women" - she isul
net the materialisation of his PGSt forbidaen reve-dreams.
UI He-needs"heryiniis-inhis-imdeanat tion - as a loose woman, açhing an
acmomnacaesescadscavsrad@car@radaeacd ic ama Omeaeadacac8bm: from end of
- the day torther other as a healthy woman ne ver does-fon-the
most elementary and perfunctory eadaabasracacaoatacadac
edo gontaotans ii H
y ay open to timl of enjoying
her, for he knows that he could nev ers! succeed in-eedueing
her, sorhe Telegates" hér to a place E his-dark-dreams.
Always he must find oa way, of renjoying. the women he says,
Sthough he- very seldom- egtsnear enough to them. to touch their
bodies, and even more seldem succeeeds tin making -love to
J. tpems Onewoman, tke the
brought-to the
Lo K
house for the firsttime yesterdat,
Et took at closely,
e ing, tis -eyes screwed p anxi iously as if bezts on some
Lu fo
painstaking invesitgation, a her osem en her arms en her
Jee
Uof
A kiis lege verifying éach erotiodetal 11 so as to-diseever the
s extentofher warmthi Tow tris
ue a vhom tre enjoys-on
thespoty with
tearet
ne ver
may
try toseduee,
Sek
he may neven take
beuroom far the photogr aS
may never ast to go out with nim. But Phe does npt search
trce
Maria 's bodye Ht
es He places the whole ofther life,
since. - he knows a litt t e about, "her, into the sad laboratory
pf his desires) Bat he has In-semensy to possess every
toman,she-ebmes before aig eyesy uhless she is-ugty -and
offensive.
What e can Aever allow himself todo in
the interests of his daily and perhaps only pleasure is to
see any woman simply aslanother human being, with functions
liké his own, with quick and transitory desires like his own,
with weariness and disgyst like
a body: no more
his-ow,and
lof n
énchanting than his owh in the hours whenit was' not desired.
Heabadacacadacapaakgatacaondacaaddatasawamanabacreag He
thue-in-a-sense murders all the women he sees, robetas them
CuD
of théir humanity, even the women he lives withe Prom-day to
day so,3hat-he-may continue to-associat them with pleasure.
and/ with pleasure alener Lehchery is atuaps a kind of
necrophilia,, and I have always notided that under his searchin
ga/ze a young woman seems for a moment to die, to become a
mere body laid out for his gaze.
h R w7
Inadheadaaadieaeneaegeacdazda While a lot of people bemuse
themselves with an ideal world which is calm and beneficent,
rzeou
Imppne -


he seems to need one that is ugly, brutal d meangy, fetid
rand altogether-deathly. Por Iem -surethe werd Love means
for him above anything else quickand solitary orgasm,
snatched anywhere, on a beach, in a car, between vine-rows,
in the dead of the night.
do-not know What-can-happen to-sueh a man-when-heis
very old, when these at
ead, when the platrorn of
tis whole 1ifey tt #
n a
nopped away
His work,
which is a few hours every day as a veay minor clerk in the
Ministry of Shipping, means nothing to. him; heagagaracaade
he never goes riding, ne goes
te -sea enly veny rarely,
he never watches sport,. nand I do not remember seeing him
read a newspaper. He only -quickens, he only-bec.omes really
fluent and at his eàse, least disturbing tobe - withy when
he-is etnring-with a young woman, in-however-aroundebeut-a
aad/when af-c-ts-chogusaing the Fégel. aristrocacyo whese
nm) most distant: connections he knows. - ackekedcdanMancaddeathea
xlh gadmemodegoxaadnenot thacàc.- kiln
-L GR mas L V -
Last night Tiatched,talking.to, Maria on her terrace as
it grew darkerpandsthe lights in the flatewindows behind
us. went .up one after abother and - our voices became more
muffled in the loyely, stranded-duek:) Hei has asked her
a to g out - dinne with him-several imes, er to Ponza
(for twoidays) bur -each-stimeushe
18 that she is
really
toobusy and ha
6 can Aeye
ay I advance when she will
STET
benfree. But Last avening. Ae decided ona frest taetic.
He. told.that while he was attracted by everything in her,
by, her voicey-by-the- erect way shesat inia chair, by her
talm and still eyes, by her long,, dreaming walk, yet he
realised that hehad no:chance of'ever making:love to her,
being,compared with her, an old man (he is fifty-nine), and
perhaps not her.kind mentally Now-he-will.increase the
Ivelocity of his/Anvitations, until she will.accept a dinner
from"him-outsof exhaustion, anduthen -he will" nope to carry
purs
that éxhaustion through to the bed, askihg her-again and
again. until,she is, willing.to sell'her body fora "little -
peace.
He. also.spoke toher abouttrthe Rarvellous boy who lad
left. her quiterattlessly a short time agon and he did
Lhole this in. order to show her how. de'ep his "sympathy for her
yuh
and his insight into the characters of othér people were.
But in fact. he only. showedi her chow blind,-Astonishingly
blind, he islto the real situation. For rnstnace, he said
Kanori Saie that>the boy was never! in love,Tbmetithis Was wha't" chiefly
worried' him about the boy: 9 that he feared he had no capacity
for love.- Hantavauggataudvavanai ma vatatayataxa vaea taj pavar
axavavang va md vatha itai bavazavatapàyabâtadatal v& baveuatabaya tàe
aeaca@asheaaadadacaong achoacheadasdsaedd aeadaeac. Both-Maria
snd-ikron-this to be nonsense and-that Franco, the boy,
-hasbeen paintully In 1ove for a long
it aow
She Laid
khi ouggestea to the Count that he might S imply be blind to
Frano's real. nathre, but he shook his head
and" said, no, hedtknew-Franco from a child,chad very-tendentiouely seèn him in
the..house:. .every day : for thrée years or more, and
that
plasenls


/ he was in a much better position than most people to judge Ris
Beancets heart. But The fact remained, - taaaxahe he said,
that the boy got tired of his girls after he*aed slept with
Mrut
3 w
them once or twice,/c ould barely bring himself to speak to
them. fthsi much istrue) baacacac@canacacasanedatmonc acac Said
abdeadacacargaasaamaact adacaragaaadacaadacsasenedondac Maria
toldhim that this meant nothing, only that - he dignot love
amists
the
6 most:of
-girls-he-Went
itzes
Roscdogonenenenoxgadavondentecodafseneardascicaraedoao
Rendnonbecansbaracheataoacabacinatacstasnencacecabacneabnencacecabse
Maria
But does she know the whole of the. story, I wonder?
tried
dark
to find
After.the:Count,had. leftithe
iterrace
out. Perhaps she knows. She knows atleast thatke is in
lovek She.said; that Tthe Count must be:e even: morestupin than
Erauco
be go blindete-someone-whe had livedin-the
seme-house for - long
But Tasaid, Nof- glancing at her-
'the most. intelligent BED wer%Zoften blind" insteh
ituation,
while the Hasherwomen.and.the-milkmen knew tha facts. Shesed
HO4 didingt teply-to this, sO'I. have no way of telling metter if
Aon
she understands everything. aB I'kept quiét,and taan we
talked about S omething else.
Strange how often the name! Franco is: heard. He
peopley
Has put'a- spelly itseems, on so-Hey people with his ga icls:
pres nee. a Helzs so, fulli.of : the sun, soiively', tall;with
iptu
fair bleached: hair and" good teeth, not- ate all--handsome but)
Steming HO, avagaxaufua vandvatad: graceful'and kindy e
sch
oking and then falltig into a quiet moodjamdxatal ta Ba
apanti MES X ana ttene * to-ottielmpeople a -SO. well, never Aemain
allowing them to dwindle into sadness or l too much alone -
1s Is twenty-two now, ang/fariaway in the nor'th; working on
aacafadheanauamac a farm. Bat Marcella, Giuseppina (his
mother) and Bapto all.. talkabout. himiat- - Ct léngth, and abu
éspecially to Maria, whose pain they think they are sete
luotie
east 9 ana perhaps they'are right. sI'remember-the dount
and
telling Mon one afternoonjat-this house, when most ofthe
tel JoY pt
others mere out of thecroom, how Franco used sometimes, for
Tire
apparentiy noreason,at at go' into his r oom" suddenly,
alta
thpow himself on his bedand burstzintoftearg.. - This wovied
peple
toula bunt and disturbelthe Count; fot, there is' nothing
ty cruel in him. Buthe does-nbchréalise that: : he
himself was partljof the cause
the
bogts tears? It would
be a meet dreadfil shock to him, ifthe.did. D'Or'does he really
know everything; eard is he tryingta telliother- pe ople
oppdsite of the, tru th. trmorder to Eprotect his: own
bui
wall round a mgelf as a
Apclobge
maiteshift-eensolation in
Hess werld. I wonder if the knows everything and suffers
and suffers even more because he has to wa tch the, divining
eyes of other people -r ound-pimgpeople who know' the feal
gituationyamk, like Mariateh mes are estonished 26 a
B ST
Once or twice lastyye ear he Bavelittle indications that he
Nesype
Aknewall 'about it.
I wonder?
I remember-Franco" C oming down from thè north last year,
Man
v'ery brwhf clean,dna Bweet, and what terrible quarrels ti
wher
that caused, between: the Ceunt -and Marcella. Ôn the evening.
int
ibefore he 'wént back Hancadaa I temember hew he was
with Marcella gn, the. tentaceiokarlooking 0 the gravel sitting
path,
Inomnju,
locking, Maprese ey pehlaos h ana


I remember
where the trees move Ery softly at night, and
how, as tr it got, later, and ** later? the Golat came
downstairs againadn agihs in his pyjamas and. snapped at
Marcellagbnet she must come up to bed, taat this kind of
life was ridiculous, and that it was already past midnight.
She looked like a young girl in the half-darkhen, She S imply
nodded to him. each time, but her heart was quiet, she was
altegether unmoved by anything he:. said,-and there. was about
her that ruthlessness and obstinacy of a wife in love with
someone else. Franco simply looked the other way, into
the darkness of the garden while. the Polnt talked. POF Fhey
had bothed hoped helwould fallwasleep. Franco had the
bedroom near the kitchen, on the ground floor, while all the
other bedrooms were upstairs, and abayatadauan : after the
Count/feell asleep they would have gone there and locked the
faller door. I noticed that. whenhe 'was in twon with me, drinking
at one of the_bars, or in a party of people, he was lighter,
less-thoughtful, than-whenhe was witirifarcella, as if he
Fone)
hadrentered into trimse elt-assinpfrom a too-terrible happiness.
The otherday. she shewed me'a. letter from him. in which he
said,that everywhere he went with her, a cafe, the seabesd ch
- 3 they/sat, and I watched from t high up'in- Naples, the very, raod
zeng they drove along, the hotel bedrooms at night, the
stations, where they met and.said-goodybye,all thezplaces
where-they were close
easa- athen andcadac abachoaracac
beçame for him Oremarkable t d ovely, under'a' "special light,
polegatedtto-dreamy ove ha tred, primevally brilliant,
: wordless,, and, if. he everi saw.these- same: places: again, wihgtu
her, they were stillfunder that light, as if . they lo'd hed been
bapitised--fcoh.
IHir
Alse she told me hewshe never felt: shame in his presenc e,
how; they-could do anything to.each other without sensing the
farbidden, ane how shew could not live an hour. without thinking.
about him and dreamingl backpeiavez Only when they talked
to each 'other d'id they find real rest, ans compared with tha t
talk all the other talk they did was irksomepand sbatadae-
troubleds
Itrey restedin wach-othern Their first moment
wre
fph -
meeting again was an eztraordinatygelek, like theworld
poving over, aye
P et She asked me if for me as well
he asanad a. was such a strong, golden presence; for example
whén abagawac we were all at
he has
lie
tablerAnd Baid,Yes,
so much light in him, hawks-like thé sun!" But she pressed
the question harder, leaning forward with strained eyes like
a young girl, and: asked, bet Did his' presenc e seem to
aaandx canc el out the rest of the world for me.as it did for
her, didI find, the same solace in his' talk, did other people,
especially other girls, feel exactly what she. felt, except that
she was happy enough to.. possess him? - This made me smile,
and 'I'said, yes, it's true he has light, in him, but these are
only your feelinge; : it'1s becausè
you are indoved) thats what
itis-tobeytn leve, to Lfeel adabathat only wi T
im or her
can you really rest, ito feel 'éven in your body exposed to
that place in the room where the belovef. is,sitting, ana and
to bless e ery place you.
youeact carry heaven im your totogether, Tender"it-heayen; sinc e
yes
- began =J
by. accident.andi she
= méangit to continue.


20. She was joking with him, sitting on :his bed after everybody
n -else 'was upstairs'" and 'when she ruffled' his hair he pulled
her towards him) still her nephew, and then, swiftly, and
a watirrstlent ease, in a kind- of Blaen.t-votad C
vorces entered-from outeida, whère house and clucking people
chad. slippedi. saway, their teve-bodeme tal TC was "like the
first primeval love of dreamss E Lud.hemavauavavaraparrtagamanav
Hay,
Amu@@ed-round with the - 'dar # at a utterly safe . They léft
other ashamed and awed. Next morning she. told him he Id
wickedito, think :of doing suchta thing, and they'
basdaon
must
E forget about it as soon as possible. At
lunch, before a table,-of ten or twelve people, she told
everyone how Franco seemed to prefer older and women, and
Bott
she watched .him blush-paihfully; # he thought shedrsalty
taerd deserted him, tare deserted bacmdovelinese-of her own
act. Bat-that-night; when ieveryone had gone to bed, they cebre
went to. the same bedroom by the kitchen, and their lere was slove
this time. wilder; because they were rebelling against their
own commandsrjasaingt a world which couldot come up to the
- their love:: : Am r om thst-itime shenever brted to
scologol
level
him, and never toréled to stop herself, bat thought-of hig
I ewery-dayraid "every: hour of - the à
dày. Being away from him
became a pain; and she tended now not to smi or àuatg laughr
L n when-he-was away- from the house, though no one noticed tis.
rulaves
At thab t ime Pranco-"Bes-living in the house; amuch liis a
1 frailer and-merecshalteretshaltered person thans he 'is now. He had
no work
and-a would sit for)
therer
Aybrs in the p.room
P goveriooking-the. gravel path and E e. fruit trees,'
with
playing
the wineless, reading()feeling tseless, espeeially as all
i> the ether people of nis age in the Tamt ty went eut - "to work,
a mother' danling
et +
- aet
th the family
(Marcella aside), ascno Lone éouldwho wa-s capabl Le -of love-or
Aro
tears. Soheand Marçella were like two children together,
crouchedrin 'a corner:. W here 1t: wa's?warniand - dry hugging each
other and afarid-of whg the-world-might do.
actislifear
Oneiday.he çame to/her and sdid he could béar 1to
longer, he wasso muçh bn love,
He did notsay at/first
whg wizh, andushe: yas"perfectry confident asishe Aooked at
bim and smyled, acaaaagtacugnezeadt not ealiging that
sometimes/hee-came togher Hke a mother
One day he came to her and said he could bear it no
1 1 longer, che was.so'muc h in love!
He didCoptsay at first
Lar' ol-
who with, and she was, perfortty confident as she looked at
: himrand-smiledja -Stapeet
nething Thenfhe tolai her it
e un
was-her daughter, heloved, Stefanella, and that he Manted-mar
6 marry her.. ShavagatadatavavreamaDatgvamdy Ivatavayasa
brt,
ataveta taxavhwadavinadamatatagavdvaenvexama (She wanted to
Jul
G /scream -out,but sat'there eimplyi watching him, her mouth
i (Su
a little open, terrtf Huda hardly daring to breath,and it
was clear : from his : eyes that he divined
do rel 3
Indeet, he came-to her like a sono hedid -nothingof net
eve her that pain.
stre could feel towards-ahimlike
irl and bat -she-was not
incharge 01 everything, kuavangva taw agal ma taervaxaca kx vata ta
Abaofoaoxeguecadabedagamadabavadacecangeadgdaceraogendybacaoa
justas-she-
had-been ehargeof thretraddea love, ab 0 owing Lm the-way
60 ey seachuing tim.
retid not beliey
at was fallible,
lusliod
yood in hon 82
Lad ho a -


ad that she was not mother be him; namely without any
concerns or painof HX own, only the vessel of tris adateea
a wava-dreame ane want
Baacanachaacacaeadabacagaeagaagcabad
al xa va oadatstafamatazayamaspabsaabsambdaskzambdaskzama: gaadaavauamadavane
a vaiavay vaxa
et trer
tre e one word 'Stofanellal-anto
the tomb
a wonle was-euddent; II dark forher, andher-
onty solace
mned awey
She was alene, perhape-ee-she
And
a U Tever beet befor
She had -not even noticed. him and
Stefanella' together.
They pad taken walks togéther, they l
thad-been to the cinema, F
A but never once had
he.eithought that tae puld
e * from-her-love.
She
realised that for him it: was not predisely love, as he would
feel it for a girl his own age; it was some thing-that went
on and on, despite other girls, Just as the realtion between
mothèr' and son goes on, does not collapse as soon as the son
Srelbons takes a woman
> o ina way he made herfeel moreterpibly
al, rher agep the difference ofyears bètween them.
weeks
For
afbstais
she suffered the kind of loneliness - tire beartalone in
Ru aroom, theawakefulnese-hour by
Stor
hour-through thezhight, and
then through the/night again, in a delirium of pain- Gat
ahich wl relboople hope -will never come again aftertyouth, but which,
eur weys does, humbling thr proud, adulto tpsetting the
kress and that calm, undut
We-kirow-all-about -it
look of middle ages She PoenEln girl again, wh)needed Hke
a girl to gt ettéd and put on a special-diet and puttobed
aar -
nd mede to see rew
until
faces,
the sickness of her
héart was over.
Shacapaaacacaracagaosg She spent hours.on her bed upstairs
eaeh ni ght-adaba listening for à- noise, her door open, knowing
that he and Stefanella were dowa-there, talking, perhaps belms
kkaaingh à - haps mere now, Win'a first abadndon, in that
meadow of love
a ake good-emeeling, end never
cta be had agal e
She pdatt ta théré smoking cigeerrte after
cigarette, staring whenever she heard the murmur of ya voice, or
Feard-ner/Gough, thinkihg it was-her leve-ery, or heard the
bed creak, the springs clanging quietly togethero
0 move
or-beginning
fwr
ith eg
ity, most dreedful neise-ofall then
Geasing again. And, she would only
would
closfher ey
for ithe first time, when-thegirl "came into the bedroom and
diven)
lay down-at-her side, and she heard his door close downstai
FShe and sher-daughter "said little to each other during those 0
days.
She though Stefanelia knew wha t she was.guffering,
but she couldTapt be sure. She asked hef2w whether she was
sefpual)
in love withatm but. Stefanella. atways shrugged her shoulders,
pouting, and'said she did"npt know. - AHGI - thinka bacacata
srafpe a
She asked Stefanella again and again-whether she was in
love with-him, but the irl only shrugged ther sheulders,
don
pouting, and said she did not know. Y. I think she felt. the
will of, heri mother steadily
her
drawing'
back from him, and
could_npt face the separation from-her mother, nor the te
silent disapproval;f her-mother whrictr stre Atst-have felty #S
Frait,
Tdaiicelgo andgave wayg slowly, et
at te possit J - H i


tae 2
oflife go, her-own future, children (whic.h Bhe adores),
as Eabull in the ring, the sword.deep in his neck,
hall 2 lieig
just with the picadors drawing closer,' the heat and the loud
te n
cries
turns round slowly, his head lower and
joining,
lower,
yph aw
his eyes utarerty defeated atlasty almest-loving, his enamy,
begging fongiranase,-and- gives in, slips serddeniszon tgr the
Tay
sand and doesnpt move again. Marcella had the sword, and
plunged it in quickly, her eyes closed,into the neelof the
daughter shéfadored and'slept withoevery 'hight. Afew
rih.
weeks later Stefanella came to her and said that she was no
longer interested'-in Franco, and'si madé a face as if to,say
that she was disgusted. This meant for Marcella that he'lad
tried to make- love toher seriously, todd-more then-kies-ner,
ec. and that aEr had failed: She was astonishinglt happy at Ee
ceming aboutaf this-miracle,"and"Franco and she made loved with
the same easy wildness as at first. On his_side, he had
récovered from-Stefanellay 3 Paret he no longer' described her
loveliness at great length to Marcella, nor did he say again
pain) I anthat he: wanted to 'marry her.
t That Is always Stefanella's s experierce with. young men
who-love"her nAtofirst therë.i 1s"kissing, and jokes, and
silent, dreaming walks. But then there c:omes. the moment
).. i when theiyoung man tries"to love"more than her face, and
thèn she is terrified, and. the aftermathlof.his assault,
always"abort/ve, is'for her a bewildered, wondéring remorse,
or else disgust. simply disgust with the body. After that,
i! n.olislowly: ori.quickly, the young" man came "to 'see her face and
body as nea tral, repelling touch, not made fon. love. And
she-watches his interestdwindle, knowing each'time that it
will happen
Fetatie :wants. chilaren,-and le
ats a husband: K She
is always feeling -iI1; and she suffers frequehtspaems
srefue
spiteand -hatred, which-make hér"shoulders slope more than
cleals
usual, her eyes dim and mean; her voice. becomesa stek Tmt
murmur, and she ie 1ikeia fierce beast"caught, gold-manedo
Huk
beginning to growl, teeth-showing - ane about E spring.
She, isi vory. strong-and when-her 'anger is up she can be Fery
cruelwith her hands.
Iaave., seen.her. pull. chalo's hair
with all- her-istrength, I- aveugeen herin a moment. of
bitterness twist Hex cat's tail; and most of. her joking
takeg_the.form of horse"play. ' Last hight, at a small party
held in Milla's house behind the, vineyard, she pulled a
çhair back just'as I was about to sie/dowif on it, so-that L
landed on the floer; she: hit a. young..man with all her
untl
Elly
strength.ion. Sud-back'while-hewas jgeging out of the window, He ke ovm
plymts
(he did not move at all, I think because the enuelty of Co kue 1
her-biowyrand-the-suddenees wh 1 le
as calmiy watching the
moonceme tp outside, made A
furious tha aad e movedat
LAVE
ali-he-would have-done somer tning terrivie); atd she was, Lue So ighit
constantly pulling peoples arms, burning their bare arms
with the wey Itip -of her'etgarette while they talkedo and
sDon When she does this people de mot IL ughy, Dut look away
away: in sembarrassment;)o
IRe Marcella. askoher
why she has to be'bad/1ike this. 7 Baacaenct Boaeaegdagadaca
adadaofczexengacdorcaaxdagaaacaoxea
ag- f the
alls
love had turned, into-tnis; and she
lel
H this
Stazanils


Lo lesl,
community of touch with pother people, even' though-the
touchis one of pain.
Her horserplay was onc e galety, but i
now 4tisastoknesstekness
fajr how,
Every day she Goes to a huge locomotive factory on the
outskirts ofthe eity,and workspin ahe office just behind the
Long eilver assembly-room.
The noise is continuous and
Rem
defafening, from one end-of-the-day tothe other, but whenever i
I ask her about it she says she levesthe work Sue, and finds tre
noise comforting; indeed, after- -three yéarsAcould hot do without
it now. Skavayaxargvavawavatàwataxadatavataxadatarada vagzyapevadataxa
ahababadabagalagebahabpbg bababababababgbababababapahababahdb
abkbababebah@>SSne. comes back to the house silent and tired in
Rwing
the evenings., etearly very proud ofdoing 'a: grown-up jobs while
being T
really an ankawpd-ehild.
She sits down without
ug bos speaking, srsighing like an old woman', not answering Marcella's
solicitous questions, but shrugging and yawning, meking-hop.oa
Ref - face) ugly, utlike zmworkmen-after" long night-shift + A justas
VRAG
if ste
the-bern-andunforigivning enemy -of att delicacy and
warmth. IfI chappen bo:be.talking to Marcellà, quietly and
umlls
easily as we ofben do, she will cut across the conversation
J' deliberatelys. with a murpesely matérial
like
questioni
Did you think to order mere butter today?" or iWhy, was
Carlo dipping about in: the pool, you know 'he comes' in with his
feet covered in mud, and then Elsa complains -!" Iffs as is
she.is trying td proclaimacatanamate that tr the "world. i8 dead and
there fore not to stir, not to talk vith too much warmth because
} it 1s folly tondoi sO- about dead "things,inot to:1 love,/for there
1s deathhlove is the silliest of 11lusions, not toet one's
thoughts 8o beypnd the world, the seen and toudhable world
where people work, spend money and are tired. She believes in
nothing; J her: world - is.. heaped about heri. in fragments. Aadcac
sbankosbacacags ataegeagadagabacadagabacagaea Hezoagadadangadangonandabeer
Her Li only CO nfidence comes.from.) her work, from a Teeling that
sheis on the right side of the law, that she is the same as
eyerybody.else, ithat.what.she gets-she deserves' 'because she
dediea works for it, that sbe is essential to something or other in
the wohld. 1 Her workis ktie a/daily'genuflectiôn-to
order
and respectability,
That Lewhy people whose work, is
aun
1ou
and empty ofang 'perso nal.meaning can walk -through' the streets
with their heads uptreven grognand strong men-who-work-at-d 8
desks like reunuchs eyery day agadgaddacadacautc-redundant
spe a tors of
hat
they ean work-withtheir
treads tpg beeau s6 heyare astonsihed at thel ownrespeetability
areadc adad
its confines, ae like
a. LLa
et oner
aB LS different"from Everyone Else,
dirtier,
#e more untidy, purthoughte eannotbe
- a redeieted, Le
n.love, have + etehed desires; arelazy,
are cruel
Everyone Else
e Image
* hich we are
cenfrented and frightened. as a tren Everyohe-Eled is clean,
urte)
ordered and has a job, so athat when we achieve the. staus of
Everyone Elsey nespectable anep taken for! honest" at laht(though
rather dull, perhape, and our real hopes wasted)Swe are
astonis'hed 8 at the ease of the. victorti (becayse the fight was
d exagerrated) and
feel
Peally
superior,. as stefanella does, to
those who.sit at homegall-day or wort in fieldsor gadabout
incars.
have a Jense 'leif


Sutou 7 tes
once or twiee she is talkea to me cuietly, neminiscing,
telling me how-beeutifur/Ponza is, how onerg feet show blue when
Gme puté them in the waterg how glorious it is to appoach fthe islaud
Nar 6) through a rough
boat riding out of the waves and then
nosing down, gpin and
if you stand on, the tallest rock, you can
stan
see az thesotaland and the limitless-séa gres? and blue and
touched with faomy white, art-abouty and how there 1s.one child
there, a boy who serves at table when she 0e
whe hasa proud
and angelic. face, at whom youmét -Look, Yor he'movés'so slowly
and perfectly,s and
like - a chosen creature, with a marvellous
S mile! barcelling' out with his + eve St Ae eity d 1 its-dark
ap effectsg @r she tells me about a LL # she toek to the south
fl ( once,"howshe saw-Iscla and'wanted to live "there, how she loves
islands, - and how if she married she would want to take X husband
'away andibe alone with him,"seprate from 'the world,' on just
such islands... She neyer talks about people in, this quiet,
dreaming way', N uherdeyes fôr thefirst time looking right beyond
we :
the world: for peoplemake herSeeluncomfortable, she does_hot
. .really-11 A te
E trhemy topadee she trust them, nor can she'
believe easily that they cane - as clean acmettrebae and decaut
eng a's she hessel 1sf. At the fàctory she goes to
oln
the canteen as little. as possible, while the other office
i CI, workersigo: down.ih great parties adadgaacaaade éradaraeadabaeac
aogeacara every afternoon. - And I notinad
the
11 ather
SI 56 ladwiwhen she was +
of ho
seonle séami
a o
y ife want
oot exrible altr a
ad enacially hep/ay a
how
rai
etahedla ta
Aaz
Real She has
- déspaired ofipeoplé. '
Fery touch 'has turn ed cald for her and
shewill not try again.
iS not reatagaatarta she 1a ates
other. people, it is tha't. she Cannot believe they will "bring
her good anyl more, she cahnot trust their smiles, for |she has
92.seen.too much-go'cold. cAndso when they ask hèr to cdme down
to the canteen to meet someone new, to meet.a.young man she would
like, she shakes aer head and goes back to hèr' désk, as if to
tell them she has tried this S ortof thing too
- Li
many times
) : before and always-been "caught, always been-betrayed.
I noticedat the. party the :other evening. how, when she
Z wasytired(and perhaps'a bit "ashamed) of her horse-play she
satothe edge of the room
watching the rest.
half-
stmpey
smifing,"maaxaaaxagamaeacadaehoadadasaddeadgogcseacaasodoaancada
Hoaaacaadaagaqgcataezcgeagàedeacadadeeaaadawaeadagabaraedd
C haatadadegadfeh lost'in' ouri movéments and expréssions, seeming
ta cancell-herself out, tro-want feronly for other C peeple, as
if suddenty sho'tard-turned, into an "old woman, d L with golden
ha ir.
noticed especially her eyest how dreamingyand-their
3 - U geze was as stre watehed
young 1 màn dance a very ceod rumba, how-
trey seemed to be sighing
ag; Ah, K L pelonged to
lifer
C inck
Lee
Ces
!) - iineii


25. This morning I was woken at eight o'clock by Elsa's
terrible shouting; EFE
very seldom. that I wake up
peacefully, never tha t I wake up in silence. But silence
when it/fallp over the house is moving and glorious, like
doen
the-proclamation-of somtehing onehad forgotten and thought
was impossiblegagatny likelove, -
This morning the trouble
yad d
was started by Mau urizio. He came down the stairs with dirty
bare feet
Elsa was washing the tiled.floor, and she
:1 asked him A8d not tread where she' Bad'already worked. He
-toad asked her, rudely wasivshe net paid for, her.work, and
sJlot nC' this infuriated her, d'oning from a - fourteeh-year-old boy.
soShe began shoutingat theltop of, her af voice,8 few feet
Lon L- from mydoor, which' leads éiit from "the main roomowhere
mogt of thes houting throughout the dey takas place.
. J1 "Hér voice is' terribld-and even when she As'saying kind and
amusing thingsjit ie the same, that
say
seunds-as
avg MrC sif te a -
thé Moulest insuits;
like the
C u P
voiee
D man
at one-could go through-all
key tuke
: : life withow
lea
sur C
a eund beceu-se that degree of
usfiness in a woman is. rare: and het we L is shouting,
U3 espeei LE - - When
séréaning
the top of her voice al
1o ting, there
org
ng her
ne mind, one Just has
ufu
nd st
ke a+ man being,punished for
puh
fle avcriméo he "did/hp know he d'committed.
All day there
shouting, andithenslamming
arequarrels,
- inof doors" the'calling" of names and screamed curses.
séldom does silence fall over FF house, Jand
moment
atjany
itmay bebrokeh" with
E -delibaretemmurderous aenaaa
eekby someone coming heavilydown.the.wooden stairs vor
duy
the child Carlo rushing in from the garden and pushing open
Lal
the doorf with all his stpength,or,the Co4nt arriving
laches, ymotiog Suddenly 'on his"motoregole and asking
in tis
incessant questions
apprecist of 2
that. worried, uneasys broken, and inerverwracking (voice,
dstalking"into the'big room and peering about, -And Mothing.
can be predicted. Elsa may, be rpolite and: iquietrand amusing
JjDi "nowp.doing 'her: WOFE wiilingly, looking after everyone, and
j6 msbe)
then, not an-hour later, she,
our L magibe screamingia ratatihe-top-of
L guhericroicsand.ta'kng hera son-by-the neck and giving him
a uls
great smacks across. the Evolce,or,decrying theshous e/for
NI being dirtyand: degenareter, for paying her too little,
for kaving a tepeyr tunvy DIT life which: a. beggar wouldurefuse
to 1ive! M.Sometimes t'hé "mornings open marvellously, with
Marcella bringing; a
blackycoffee into:my room as the
cupiof,
'sun- comesu i through the shuttersz onto the light tiled
floor,
glewing, and the house is. silent-afterothe, children, the
w - ) + 111 odaughters-and'tha'cpdnt have all left, and then breakfast
is prepared and laid for me atra Sorner of theutable in
tk tu-che-bigtroom,"and Marcella sits with me smoking and talking
while I eat. But there is_nothingireguler There / isne
order. This"morning, 11
after :
Elsa's shouting had eeased, SEPP
I found there "1L1 was.no.coffee; posteajono "bread. There was
J.It fiith everywhere in thehouse, the child- Garlo Was whimpering,
and O mpayying as'he ha 8 been doing for three dayy, dokiberately
how
stirring People's-nervgem and Stefanella's room, which is
a refuge for me, had?npt been made readyof fortheday. Marceel


lown,
had gone to/F-
I walked about the hous e cursing the Ae
wretehed village, hating the-family-
tad begame legia
partof
I the tihe-villages ertelty
Perhaps my facez worez that same dark,
u faled meanlook.
I blamed Marcella with all the others, mperhaps
beisn
more, beeause.Iam nearest-her.
I-blamed-her for the chaos,
the filth, sire-shouting ofmenand.women like dogs, the way yn
scratchis for foodand-money and flesh and-bitter thingsto
Lr :say and-living faili bte aeebatarpeoplerto hate:
Then I
coad C -
saw the bus from D- stop at the end of the path, and Marcella
got dawn.l a6-And-atronce thererseemed.tto come bhnough-acool est
oper
ma Ebbe stream of the gentlest good wili, like going
suddenty -aeress Hato te : mountain-airs/Bastthe'misty, , rel aind to
sweating vineyards behind the house to whert" "the peaks shew la
blue, Iight-brown.and greywbiding - theit timenuntil Godfsteps
flu
down;
grew quiet and watched her walking neatly tewerdedoba
rher houee) alongithe igravel path, her Chair: grey at the sides,
Hesam
her eyes sharp and black; and beut em
eoel
ho wa
cdistance
nees where! shewalked; liké
someone in a pictur eg everl T ing, wa king.
And sinceshe
kA mp
D00J. was
she has kept.thet dog-voicesiati bayilike this
and Her comi Lal ae
a-blessing for the house, E itbg
rooms. grofzeasy_aga in, ey es close; and the. ilight ee-returned
to people's faces, tro dogsand men.
I went down to
thjud
Kitchen to, meet:her tand, she. mader me.teal,i the best China, and -
gave me her special morning dishbread 'with tomatoes,
parsley, basilico,
allisoaked
bley
jandgarlic,
inioil.!
"You must
she said.
Rioa
havebagriso hungry,"
Caslo-
d The-lunch, wasiquteter thanrany- I'tave evero. a. known here
on a Sunday , when there are usually a great many visitors
shand à cars, draw up, çontinually. outside::the front porch and
there are incessant hand -shakings and cries of welc.ome
foftgn-slgulated,) hiding, oldnfamily-eruekties)s the dogs
bark, people run up and down the stairs, the children are
excited, the radio,1ayswitched':on, 'peap Er the catsgfive
gant
of them with the slim, elegant Siameser creep in under RE-legs
o: : andr getyup: on tot then.tabler tortake-enetohesef Bread-leff-over -
clist)
fromlunch or manage to pull open the cupboard door with their
paws and get inside at 3 the cakes-ahdj-1f they are very lucky,
Jv scarps -of meat. But yestérday there were no visitors
before stron bapf-paat-in.therevaning, execpt for
Giuseppina' 's two daughters, Ornella and Serinella, who are
ct. - ii really memebers ofuthesfamily andilbedause they are
Giuseppina's, thatis, conaizad.in.bountyr, the fruitsof
: L-L 3. agood.heart, Bince
and because they: liverin the cityiand have
they were children, are gentle, solicitous and
done/
:.1 :t acaaad.easy, with.no.marknof nther hard. "villadu'on"them.
Yet both the Count and Marcella are from the citys a@zeadadeedc
LJoss. belong indeed, to two :of.theimostinoblé and richest families
there. But they came into' the country, or rather: the
outsjirts. of-the city, for itiisonly sleventeen"kilometres
from the centre, spon after they were married, and gradually
: or .the darkness :of the. country ayacsdacidapanabudacgeidaosapuad
adiacabadacadgasc grew over them but could
light
U UA
not, put-out their
Ou 59 T1
altogether,ssomposisesed instead' their children.
The
children are, with the exception. of Sasga,
Carlo and Maurizid. swear and, 'swagger Fo
1ike C country-poeple. ountry-boys,


they steal, play truant and go about in bare feet.
Only in
Ma urizio is there a little city-d4licacy, yet his father was
a peasant; perhaps in him Marcella's spirit was allowed Bax
sway, wagnot ravished and strippedby -the Count.
Neither the qount nor Stefanella were at lunch ye sterday;
that is, tosay, the two most nerve-wracking elements were
daakaagea absent.
a Strange that, while onecan-like
the_Countrag
n one-feelsmhis presenceyevery Becond,
1T one aeada never or E teast very, very seldom,and that for
$he brisfest time, grwos easy ander his eearehingandanxious
> gaze! >It 'has"odcurred 'to me. veny oftennthat he is shy of
I-tan
people and makes, arspecial harsh,effort; toiget racross to
them, anddidalways thé first to go up to bed in the afternoon,
leaving the nest at, aable,; perhaps knowing.-in.hismysterious
Curerym
/1 and "stupid-seeming way how much bettér they can talk andvata
and. .smile. when he,s away,. As. for Stefanella, she asaaneac
avavavandtagapasatavavatal tar tende-to takes command ofathe
practical things
table,-
smacking; Cralo 's: knees 'when he
won't sit properly in his chair, shouting across at Maurizio
: in her, rough, housewife's. ) voice..to: eatudecently-andanot to
sfat tch' pread, calling out to Elsa to bring the next course,
accangaag remarking.on,the 1 taste, of -thisiand that;i ber eyes n A
and mind and iheavy hands dwelling on the earth -
the time 3
fixed down e he sandy
ubby floor
: r gloribus and nothing: cir
where noth where
easy, nothing where
there
no slowness of tion on # remipisnclencey
- IC
only
quick len
movemente and- sudden, surreptitious glances
has)
under the brow, and a * snapping out, Ewordse 1tke those of
an-animal deomed and cast out by God, dereltet a lonely
world and ert phaned by the sky
But At - lunch yesterday it was Marcellats who had charge
of the tablez,governing our spititssi paaGangcadkeasacaageà
avabataeacabadschdataaadadarada her saze paseing-everatare
2 atsa-like, an
over the table 5 Vônly, in: Carlor did-there
remain a trace a0eo the ugly, cruel will, and hewhined
at the begiming,
H king for impossible
Giuseppina 1 s daughters were
thingse But
- - aay
graoeful with him, enethe found
himself, amusing.them, Esge. ate.quietly hraving been-granted
Rel
Low Zequality with the adults. The table was-an-island Fadrift
att
from the. village. Theh.people,went,away. quietly torsleep,
and the house fell into an afternoon
silence, with the sun
mat ite hottest,6lowing, Between.ther stetters-and the curtains
acrosethe French Widnows stirring and ttren billowing out
gle w0
with thecool
the
breceze in,from
sea srWhen reverybody: else
had' goné up Sassa put the radio on quietly, and abenadabaend
Joun. after the,first onotes Iucame .out toclisten.. - It was:
Cavaradossi's aria on' the battlements of Castel Sant'
Angelo, from, Tosca, nand Sassa made it-loudrr as -
das,
realising that IEad - 'come to listen. But tine-heuse-could Isat-down,
not give so muchs
Poor, maimed thing, it Leould only
Tsilencer for a few seconas.
That was the-chieftest of give its
Gafemsonodcicabacidanebaenbatnbadeoamechds Elsa's terrible
voice sounded from the kitchen, acpeasaaadac dishes clattered
together, 9 and the loose valves of the radio made the
and the orchestra blur when, there was a crescendo or voice
rose.
The earth, the eu
the pitch
hard,grubby floor, came before one's


eyssagain, and the sky-was-dented. This peer house-muet-
always-deny the sky.
abacarutma detostcinara
Morning after morning I -wake up aaddaaàga to hear Elsa's
voice near: my door, perhaps. the ugliest voice I have heard in
my life, seeming always to blame "and demand and threaten, or
Maurizio Jumpihg down the wooden staircase only a few feet from
my, room as heavily as possible, or Carlo's deafening voice,
: astonishing fora child 'of'sevén, 'whining or calling out
relentlessly for his
or a door belng pushed ope n with
€ 11 a' sudden"harsh movemeht, ARCInEArdOe besthning-"upetaire in one
of the bedrooms, or-the"grandnother crying out at the top of
her voice that one of the children has'stolen her"bisuits, that
they cost her,one hundred and fifty lirenand that she has alwaye
pinqu to'make"a epecial trip'into'the aity" totget them, and that it
is the same every day, something, is S toler. : by the children, they
are beats, badly brought upi-svillains and thievés, and she
does not.
itis possible for. a. mother to tolerate such
know.how
1 bad ways in yer sons,' and thèy will" ënd "badly, no good can come
of either - of themand they will'bring, disgrace, on the
. -family'for the first time. 3 Then, quité"often, there is a
strange silence. in the house, between about, ten. o'clock and
moon, and-during thattime one.dreams atadpegadadacaacabarag
grabayafavava pr somehow forgets-oneself, put. always. the
tugiteturn to-the house, by' means' ofà Budden noise downstairs
just before luhch, tone of, the children rushing.in or Elsa
wlclattering"the eldishes about "furiously, islalways. a shock,
it always requares a fresh discipline,not/to scream or
lose
an.onel'ss tempêr or "run'away. Last night Marcella said to me I
must help her in some
I_must, find cher work or something,
a st bëcausevif shelstay S ARth house from day to day, if she
continues to be at the beck and call
family, idapay
ofHer
"funtc oatawadsat tavakafarahabanagalayia faea haust agndamalahaga mapabagr
ahagggagagagegagasagega wiht the incessant. noile.s0nthat she can
U10 ju eunever. goufrom-one -thought-to another with ease, that she can
never talk with some one for :' more than.a tew-minutes-without
.o.being: brutally-torn away by something inthe house, she would
go mad or die. At the time she said othis she- was- terribly pale
ri tandriooked -thinner than-usual, her snoulders bent and her
eyes very dark. These last 3 few,days she :hasinot been
fd! happy, and Ssheicha s"suadenly arrived at the conclusion that
she must once and for all-getaway; from tie.housayiat least
besiudfor most Jof eyéry: dày.
Evabybababababatababababababkbabababahab
sbabshehsbabajabajahabahabebebabebebabapababrbababebaeebkbsbabEbaparaba
ababavabahabadahal babababadababsbal Bal babababababababahkbababkbabkhab
t skgvatatavpuaypuatabawavavhvevasava Isa
: tavava, L" d. 1:r : In
And latir
Sunday thonithe louse was so quiet a nd
dagian T Count and ste T Carrel:
at Ponza,
when botirthe
L sel north for ten days'
Traneer camè ap from the
A N
et-firsty Ioould 'holdiay. Marcella was happy and
see that
IU was tike I C
absorbed
d Butzrewjassilenty
ler
doggédraaspdamde
even though she * Hes
and misery: hes eome OW
+sheje atel
someone-icondemncal mite slow in her
ght of his, unhappinesa that movements. .
shè
cher"work-dt some kind in the
askea me, as
npt bear this 1ifef uTh a
city? 51 beomneerShe a
could
Gay
gave-ther ho"chande to forget her
ei ato
hecame
a utthbnl
Ceestiri like < Jzre, as usuad


love! and no chanee to-eensele terse
fér The house had nottug
esnatinp co-seldom-anything soothing to givel Thelday was sad and
nervous, full of rain and low, Tary thick clouds, hustifig
eyerytihing, andthig wessthe evening, when she"Giuspeppina. -
and I were sitting dewa by the radio, round a small table
where we sometimes take coffee,after lunch, with a candle
alight in the centre because the electricity kept failing.
LISL+-The house was gztraorokgarily.eilent,sand. aiarthree of us
were in that half-sleep which is so marvellous in the
Eelaotrevening, whrem tal T iqui tet, re a
I a embody ig:still, and
anae-when fer
moment there is neeompeti tion, one sits
uts si1d L
Te, a
arknessyof gods,
and
understa C
Franco was upstairs sleeping;
a slight
cold.
agains stathe sudden
dhe-windowezarere.dightnsut
autumn cola and wet.
Giuseppina had been weeping all day
because. Hei son L hasj besn/geeloctaneiberg) never staying in the
11/ house)with her, never askaher to go with him into the city, , Becont
he' 'dl
being always, evel y possi Dre uminute (soshe,-seyss: butrit 19
not true, on is sidel, with-Marcella,
Ngagagag agtgagagag
- She
agagegaghg
jagagegeghgagegagat tagpbagagagagagagoga gaga BE
I & fai afarafacagarafafafafatefabmterafabntaradsfafr fadata New she
sat kaziix SI in her, chairysewing coloured designsglas always
on to èné 01 her cotton squaredwhteh ane then given-awey
ta frtends on used
tte
headsbent(forward,
for,
rableAnher:
the corner of her
now and
mouth, sighing every
digaretteat
And all: the whilej Narcellanandul were
then,e
talking ruletly-and she wasasl kint whether, a it lookedto me
(that he loved her, whethir,
suchoa
uld ever
Ithought,
hinged
die, whetherfit seemed"to me to be aaging In him now...
Her
efes had that verys darkn.condemned clook,as she: followed my
thords; Bendihg "torward to listen, not wanting to miss my
14 verdict; ad her face Lwas; palerithan Idiate everc.seen it.before,
isk aer thinner, therjaw very pointed, the slimness of her cheeks
making. her eyes very
o 42 sable 06k more:pained and
openas seeming
tte
ver remember-them.
Bba vatana
lidu
a naagnal
Hnahgganabappnshat magamaakaanananthadaanddnanaddsanaplitenan
a'ddmanaha pahehananrngl na ha Banenahagahenananahapppaabnan. Eut
whenever I say, "You're.ughappy", ETt
shé sshakes her Ghead and
says,
put4" NOP. Irere are tiings she does not-wieh-to think about,
Le eould net bear the ver
Phels
thems
Like ranco, she ha
acold, - 'and how, for no obvious reason, one of the f. ngers of
her right hand has swollen wp: with poison aiand She-has had
to stop cooking ana sewing. Yesterday She told me that when
she was anhappy and restedjshe wasnevere 1i1, that if her body
al or went wrong "itt was always but iways because of the way she felt
insided se
as te ee aa she has fallenupàn a -misery
mere tei ible
E a a
Aas ever known bacuase-there
1eno poiss
L 60 . HIO power, can reoneelee-hery thereis
€ :i cno hopeti Woadatabatdcheabanksabacdrsvavagabacliravavata V& Mevauagat taxatavate
seinamelinloscngnct before.tdiriner:o in- : the "kitchen, she
JuI feit suddeniy ili in every part of her
O; ill tha t
it was, like- being
ofJ
bodyart 1.
but.s
onrthe.edget death, and she sat down in one
of-the cha irs, her head down on the .table, until light came
again. She told me this often happehs, and that she never
metnions it to her phildren or her
m J
busband!


The family, all excepting the Count, is silent and
resentful towards Marcella all the time Franco is in the
house.
Haagasheacagasabackcadaencamaeaeadagaoacacdagcadad
atavatavàuakavaravagzkavai uavaxagagavarama tavaxzsabatavaavavaxaia ugv
axàtataualgvatauava When we came back from. our marvellous
day at the palace of C-, they were all at table and none
of them spoke when we rushed into the house from the car,
but si mply stared at their platesgas Af they/bad Orly just
been talking badlyi about -us, as 11 we were'a bout Sto be
convicted - of 8 omething; round the table thère-were Stefanella,
Sassa, Giuseppina, Fiora, Milla, /Patrizio', and the moment we
all came into. the -room they looked fike conspirators,
..watchful' and sécret, their eyep-turhed'away: We had been out
all day, and Giuseppina must have bleen complaining to them
ithat: her: son was neglecting nher, for the trip itself was
innocent and -also from theif ponit of view. respectable,
since'the C'ount was al'so waith us"
T f
L :L
nr00 3
dlem
tamz, diraua,
Kad Lo wt
ue -
- J i
stiv NaS
reeh
hisdee a
ileces lrricu
luned
LAT
Frao
Morcell-
seen
turily
ith
Tta
lc d
Selrell
silrsl
31-u i
noim Arol
L 3
apzndi,
TUSe
f kff
zin,
U, - tu
Retln
lmin
Nirel
rtp
Hor
rhi
Tts
sep
Guw
Loe
alf
ghrds : fir nisy
u wy
Lller
lir.
w.nl
haw


THE VILLA,
When I arrived today I noticed that the house was cleaner
than I knew it last year 4 This is due to the new manservant
called Renato whom I saw serving at table---it surprised me-m
when I came into the room from the garden, He vas dressed in
a white and blue striped jacket; like the silent manservant of
a palazzo that has survived the war a He was the first person
I saw when I got to the top of the steps, There is never muoh
light over the dining table, and he was standing just at its edge, a
small, wi th a rather prim mouth and crusading eyes.
A great ory went up. fram the table, from Luciana, from
Arturo, Vittoria, Angelina, Maddalena, Silvia, Nina and Michele,
and I forgot the manservant at onces The little boy Dino is now
eight, and he hid his head in his mother's lap when I came in,
then ran halfway up the stairs in the dim light, and crouched there,
watching me while I answered all their questions at table, I
remember him last year as being more oruel than shy, but now the
with it
shyness seems to have grorn, and gtxomxhknx a sort of graciousness,
That is like all of theme 'Oriental barbarians', I heard someone
call them once, but somewhere each of them, even the marchese Arturo
himself, whom most people find stupid and slon, has this gift of
grace: there is nothing benevolent ab out it, but it seems civilised--
for a moment, like a sudden acknowledgement of civilisation bef ore
war breaks out. I've often looked at their hands. They are' thick
and extraordinarily heavy, very wide at the base, like butcherst
hands or Roman eristocrats'.
Only Luciana, the marchese's wife, is different, and she's
the power of the family. Everything starts from her; she can bring
1ight or darkness to them as she wishes. When she goes away the


family relapses into its real ugliness. They mope about the
house uneasily, there is a sense of waiting for something, the
servants are hostile and rebellious # there are quarrels all the
time, and I think only the certainty of Luciana*s return keeps
them together at all. Under her cool eye, as she sits at the end
of the tabley they look like violent children who are allowed.
their say but no mares Luciana has lovely hands; and strangers
are always asking how. she could have married the marchese and,
more than that, how she could have borne. living wi th him all this
time. Usually she says quite fragkly that he disgusts her; and -
that sl eeping with him, which happens rarely, is a. necessary
penance. for hér a The spirit goes out of him when she leaves. *
And he seems frightened when she suggests a holiday for herself-
just two days, three days. In this he is like his two daughters,
Angelina and Maddalena, who share his great hands and nervous,
strained watchfulness, and like him never seem to have a moment's
inner peece,
and have no sense of art at all, like people rejected
by God, Wondering at all the mystery outside them and why they
aren*t part of it, and often hating its All three turn to
Luciana for their peac es They only find it in her, and this is
why, when she goes away, even : for a day, they seem panio-stricken,
as if their féelings will run anay with them and they have no
form, nothing to fall back on but hard, brittle thoughts, about
the dirty state of the.kitchen, or the time of the. next train in
from Rome, or the fact that the beds haven't been.made, They
look malevolent, broken, rejected; and you can't address a word
to them. They're broodingntoo deeply,
Luciana works harder than any of them and bears all the
Woories of the household, and applies her mind nearly every hour
of the waking day to keeping them all out of debt. She would


so.clearly benefit from a Holiday. But it seems they can 't
treat her wi th the mercy they would give to other people, they
need her so badly. Especially Maddalena sulks - when she goès
I remember last year,
away.; TXXXXXXXXXEXERTRxagX when Luciana went away to Naples
for a couple ar three days, she wouldn't say good-morning to any
of us;. - and Luciane had her mute, resentful eyes waiting for her
when she got backe - :
Kaddalena is called the Inglese by the family, because she
is tall and thin and has never had a mans This is why, they all
say, she is never gay; after a certain age virgins are never gay.
Her sister Angelina is much prettier, with blond hair and a neat
Young men orten
little face. XXXXRRRXEN fall nt in'ilove wi th her, so her
compnay is less solemn and pessimistic than Maddalena's, and she
understands her mother better and is less jealous of her enjoyment.
Maddalena 1s twenty-nine,. and Angelina oné or two years younger,
yet neither of them goes out wi th young. men alone. Maddalena has
a long, melancholy face, not at all pretty, yet her. body has cool,
gentle lines, and there's an elegande about her which she could
turn to beauty 1f. the spirit hadn't been beaten out of her. There
is an unfathomable dark apathy about her like the silence of the
aky I think the family made fun of her looks when she was a
child and nothing could convince her that she isn't ugly and
unwanted; - she seems to. try to oancel herself out, saying nothing
and slipping up to bed early, and she is bitterly aware of
Angel ina 's, prettiness, a 1ight which dims her even more, sending
her deepér still into herself, though she ' doesn't really resent
it. Apart perhaps from Luciana she is the only pers on of quality
among them. She holds her own counsel. She feels hate like the
others, and' the same need to be eruel, but at the same time there
is this brooding quietbin her,. a resignation, that.gives her a


certain delicacy, a sour wisdom.
The hatred in the house is bitter; sneering and mirderbus,
so strong and sure and deep a necessity in them that nothing human
could abate it. I've seen Signora Flavia, the grandmother, a
small, fat woman in black, dusty, threadbare clothes down to her
feet, sitting in the kitchon screaming with rage, her mouth in a
kind of grin, with tears pouring, down her face, stamping hèr feet
up and down on thestone floor as she Shouted, 'I'm a cbuntess 6
a countesst' A lot of the hate and petty persecuation in the
house comes from her, and she tries to influence her son against
other people, especially those whom Luciana likes and offers
hospitality to. This is ' signora Flaviats revenge on her daughter-
in-lawy, whom she: feelshas been a bad wife. The marchese only
listens to half what she says,but he. has beén hurt enough by his
wifé in the last twenty yeara. not to hear that voice as a balm.
Some péople say he's too. dense to have suffered, but this isn't
true: It makes him more vulnerable, if anythings'
Last year I remember that sigora Flavia often attacked
Michele, the fourteen-year-old son who shares - Luciana's grace
and ease, and even, her peace. He is slim, quite tall for. his
age, handsome in a rough way, # and his hands arentt those of a
butoher, ar a Roman aristocrat's for that matter* I noticed
very soon after I saw him for the first time how little of his
father he : seemed to have in him, how rebellious he'was, how
quick to understand, unlike the others; and also there was a
tenderness in him which was quite absent in the otherse. Hets
delibera tely rudé to them, especially to his father, and he is
always shouting, trying to cadge money ar cigareetes, eating great
chunks of bread and marmalade or tomatoee covered vith oil,
and when he walks it is with a domic roguish slouch, usually
with his shirt hanging out of. his trousers. Signora Flavia


complained that he was dirty at table. and that his manners were
nothing co ompèred with those of his little brother Dino, which
was untrue. If Dino cried Michele was always blamed, and the
whole family wi th the excéption of Luciana and Angelina would
bear down on h im, calling him villainand wretch.. I noticed that
Maddalena of ten léotured him in her sourly delicate ways as if
for the pleacure of exereising a bit of poner over somebody.
But the leader of the persecuti on-wa quite kindly persecution---
ién 't
was Signora Flavia, the reason being that Michele ERENT* the
marchese's son, but the illegitimate ohild of one of Luciana's
love affeirsasewith a peasant living near by. Both Luciana
and. Angelina try to protect him, and for this reas on he loves them
both with a quiet, fierce passion. People say that the peasant
wanted to have his child but tho marchese insisted on' keeping him,
after endless arguments in which the peasant rudely banged the
table. and threatened violence.
The marchese has never been known to iay a fingér on Michele,
and ba either he *s blind to. humiliation or he conceals it marvell-
ously. He waits for things. to pass over, with a naturai pragmatism,
and always tries to keep out of quarrels. But when,I, say ito people
that there may be an unusual wisdom in this, they. say,' 'No, itts
just laziness and moral ineptitude.". Ali I. know is that when I
1 A
get indignant at table because of BC omebody's rudeness hets the oné
A ange man: :
to make the first soothing, tactful remark. Although' lecherous)
thoughts seem to be in his head most of the ssday and although hè
hoards photographs of baautiful women and pores over. them for hours
alone in his bedroom, sometimes projecting them on to, the wall as
slides, he is horrified by dirty stories at. table and by any laughing
about the bodys He likes to take it with deadly Beriousness.
When Vittoria, his sister, gets a little drunk af ter ainner and


takes her breast out of her dress, to show us what a young and
tender body she still hes; he turns his head amay abruptly and
won't join in the laughter.
When a really prétty young women comes to the house he invites
her to look at his photographs, which people say really are superb
(he won't show thém to men-w-except to the local monke who invite
him over to dinner now and then to see the new ones), and which
include some of the loveliest and most aristooratic woman in the
city. And he may then ask her to pose herself; which after she
has heard the names .of thty. some of the other women comes as an
honour a - If she agrees he takes a long time fixing the focus of
the camera, while he is ac tually peering at her bosoms At
table he flirts with them, sits, ther down néxt to hims pats their
arms, touches their hair lightlys puts his hand on their shoulders+
Usually they suffor this in silence, for after all hets the head
of thé house; and on their segoni visit théy keep away from his
end of the table; under Lucianats protection, Which gratifies her.
He asks - them to com for a ride on his motor-scobter and ir they
agreé he takes them to a long deep-green field a few ktiometeres
southiand tries to make love. to them, almost always. unsucoessfully.
He is bald and has white, staring eyes and a rather. loos se'mouth,
and -he walks with his back very $ traight, as hé used. to in'thel
military processions when he was in the kingts escorte Ali over
thè house there are photographs of him in officer's ERRtIN uniforms
Most women seem frightened of him, although, perfaps hets the ledst
frightening member of the family; Luciana told me that when he
was young he was brutal with hor in love; and that his first act:
disgusted her. I wonder if this is true. Nev er trust what a
woman . says about her husband if she doesn it love himwwhe then
becomes the personifica tion of all her diseppointments.
He likes to keep on - the right side of church dogma even


even in his. . decheries, and I've heard him explain to.a young
woman that it vould right and good of her to let him make love to
her since, having been in the king's escort, when there was a king,
he'd been brought close to the Vatican, and to influential monsagne
ort, a0 that in a way oontact with him would bring them nearer to
God, or at least get them a plenary: indulgence. Eke Last year I
heard him: tell a pretty girl. hardly out of school, running his
fingers lightly down her throat, that she shouldn't. be offended
if he. kiseed because God; having made her a woman; intended her as
an object of love for men, which put an obligation on men not to
behave, too f armally and stiffly with women, especially if they
happened to, be. beautiful (*as you; my dear, are *), and that it
was better to risk offence, (seizing the girl's head and planting.
a kiss first on her forehead and then on her 1ips) than fail to
enhance a woman's beauty wherever it was possihle.
The family laughs,at this and never tries to protect the
girl: And Luciana doesn't seem a sorap jealous. Only 1s she
flirted would the family look, up, speechlessly, wa tching their
bel oved leave them again, and the foothold of their world slip
away : When someone asked her once how such ugly; restless
people could ever have issued from her she said, 'It's because
they were conceieved without love : Only Michele was conceived
in love; however momen atary. And he has her same peace, as I say,
the same slight dreaming bey ondness. I noticed him this morning
sitting in an armehair by the hearth doing his schoolwork, anid ,
for a,time the house was in utter silence, He.was looking out
of the feench windows, lost, and the room seemed to rest in its
silence, sureand easys and I thought how none of the others oould
ever have achieved that. They walk about quickly and awkwardlys
making their ***** shorts quick, aharp remarks in ugly voices.
I've - seen a look of tenderness in Angel inats face only once,


last yeer, when there were à number of people in to tea, and one
ofthem, a smiling, aunt-like, constantly nodding and surprised
woman, was talking to her olosely; and Angelina fetohed out a
tiny, shining compaot rèdio she'd bought somé prth nonths before,
to, show.. hér, with its golden aerial and a green léather case no
bigger than à woman's handbag. She plugged it in, pulled out the
aerial and bégan turning the dials and pressing spring-buttons.
And all. tho time she played wi th her shining little box and thè
other woman olapped her hands together and uttered.aunt-like cries,
there. was a tender i bemused, shy look on.her face as if this was
all her own handinork, sométhing to do with her personelly---with
her prettiness end health even, : I don't think I've evér seen her
fece so shy, like that of. a child being praised before too many
relatives; usually her: face is strained about the eyes, hard,
séeming to dwell ôn hard subjects, like how much tea there is left
in the cannister efter I've been at it, whether the dogs outiide
have-been fed, shether she has timo to go to the' local town for
another electrio plug, whether the *servants' have been etealing.
Perhaps this i8 why the young men are seldom in love with her for
longe I heard oné af them say indignantly, making the' rest of
us roar wi th laughter, that shé couldn't bring forth a chila "but
white maggotst Whon we had a visitor last yéar she said he was
dirty in'his habits and that he used.to pisb out of his: window
(which would have beon easy, as the'sill was only a foot or so:
above the ground), and that the Siamese cat used to smell Whenever
it had been in his room for long (implying he wes sexuelly pere
verted); to which he said that she had a mind as big as his thumb-
nail.
But she hàs a curiosity ab out people Which I iike. She
watches. them inquisitively, ra ther like a child, wants to know
about them, is rarely envious # Perhaps that was taught her by


Luciana, for it isn't true of the marchese, She isnso,content
to vatah other people that she curls herself up in a chair S ote
times and seems to cancel herself out, as if someone had breathd
in her éar that sheta better sive up trying to enter life-m-she'd
never really have children, take trains alone, pay her own bills,
And this childishness went with a much more practical naturo than
Maddalena's,
X *n Luciana and I often talked ab out the family last year,
just. as if it wasn't hers: how rude they'a been to tho visitor,
talking ab out him in whispers, calling him wretch, filthy beast,
pervert, parasite; and how when he came to mèals they made him
feel unwanted and mor e or less threw food at hime When I asked
her once if,they had muoh sense of other people's feelings she
They only feel it if they're hurt.'
said, 'No, none whatscever; : SaspnEm212Ds2 * 3 03:2gxaraxaxs
And she added that perhapa it was,best to be like that, aware
only of oneself, yet relying on other people's mercy, I said,
no; there was nothing luoky ab out that because they :must be
unhappy people, being - incapable of love. Irémember she shrugged
and murmured, *Unhappy no, but neither véry happy nor tery sad;
just.on one level of ordinariness all the time.' Than she added
as she went away into,the kitchen, and this surprised me, 'People
may as well be dead as live like that.'
I've often seen Angelina staring at the floor, bent forwara
a little, smoking an Amorican cigarette, her yellow bleached hair
falling down her checks (in a fashion that went out years ago),
a te rrible darkness seoming to surround her. There is somethig
unbearably sad ab out the silence of these. two sisters. They
seen . to be regretting something---some thing which perhaps they've
never known but which they feel in their mother, $ in a few dumb
intimations, not told them.in words
In the marchese there is.no sadness, justv vas there is little


humour. He has no ideas, even the religious ones he professes.
His God was a habit he picked up over. the years, as he picked up
the habit of flirtation. I've never seen anything even momenter-
ily refleotive in his face, no dream, wh ich is why his company
tends to be suffocating. I notice that a few sebonds after he
table
has left ntxxexatr to go to bed visitors sit better in their chairs
and smile for the first time He lives in'a strange, bare, friend-
less world, the lackey of his own dark thoughts. Last year I
remember Luciana leaning over towards me and saying as he openede
the door into the room, *When he comes in it's like death passigg
over the table. You oan see everyone go stiff and a bit afraid.*
I said nothing and looked avay *
Every afternoon when he comes in for lunch he calls his
youngex* son over to him and asks what he has been up to; he pats
his head and kisses him, looks theatrically surprised when he iB
supposed to, the whites of his eyes showing and his mouth drawn
down; and sometimes he pulls him on to his knee and tells him a
story wi th grand gestures; his ohin lifted up, speaking rhetorioally,
rolling out his r's, depic ting great men, so that the child stares
into hie eyes and dares not make a movement for fear of breaking
domeis
the legend, When Michele EEME in late the marchese always bubbles
over with questicns, wanting to know exactly where and what why,
poring.over his answers with rapt, derk, tender ouriosity. I
remember a feast-day last year in the village, down by the fountain,
where there are a few houses, a wooden village-hall and a petrol
pump; a orowd colleoted there after lunoh for games and oompetite
ions. Miohele was wearing his first suit, borrowed from a rich
young man, a firned of Angelina's, who happened to be abnormally
small. The suit fittèd perfectly and madé him look debonair,
but his white shirt was frayed at the collar and was too tight
round the neck, so he took off the tie, then, since it was hot,


the jacket. He came back after. dark, When the fireworks were
over, and dropped 8 traight into a- chair while the marchese began
asking him the usual quiet questi ons---shouting at him suddenly,
*Michele!', when he didn't reply. Had he been dancing? at whose
house? what girls were there? did he. enjoy it? had he been dtink-
ing, for he looked so tired? how many glasses had.he taken? And
When they boy. told him? 'To large glasses' he shrugged and said,
'Well, thatis half a litre, onough for a small boy not used to it!'
Then he glanced across at Luciana, wi th the very sl ightest of smiles,
and inurmured, 'E obronzo', hets drunks Michele didn*t deny it,
only put his head in his hands and yamned. - Then, sudeenly, he
got up and dashed away to his bedroom, where he slept at once.
I like .the way the marchese screws up his face when he asks
questions, as if piecing together a world he left long ago beoause
of its disappointments, its not having noble families in charge.
And I noticed that .when the grandmother asked him who had Won the
greasy-pole competition at the: village he shruggod and murmured,
tOh, some wretoh...', then iini ta ted a peasent-accent in the ugliest
way possible.
I think it must bé from him that Dino, the little boy, gets
his wonderful ma ture gestures, as if he already had a place in the
world. The marchesé has taught him pride in hinself, and I
remember how one day last year the .child rushed in from the
kitchen after Renato the *servant' had told him to ocme into lunch,
and cried out with tears in his eyes; 'A servant must never speak
to me like thatt* The marchese forbids Luciana to lay a finger
on the children, and they find it easy to confuse and browbeat
him. I've often heard them shout at him; and then ho grows very
mila, trying to calm them dom, a little afraid, because this is
the defiance he has taught them himself. Thoy have no fear of
him, and when they really get boyond thomselves and pehave 1ike


devils Luoiana takes them into another room and closes the door,
th en gives them a - thrashing wi th a cane, and promises them another
one twioe as hard if they tell their father about it. They fear
both her - and Angelina, because they get beatings'from both. The
possibility : of a beating gives just that tough edge to life'that:
the boys seem to need, and I've seen Dino put his bare, dirty feet
on the tablecloth so that Luoiana will give him a cuff. Then,
after.she has done it, he comes and curls up in' her chair, at her
back, wi th his arms round her heck, and often falls asleep like
that; and stays there until Angelina puts him on her shoulders )
and carries him to beds The marchese isa loving outside to thèm
all, and they tell him every sort of lie, sometimes in connivance
wi th Luciana, knowing how credulous he is.
Last night thé little boy and I were the only ones at
table for dinner, and all the time he played the padrone, talking
to me with great politeness, asking if I was enjoying the spaghetti,
calling: out to the servants in a' loud, commanding voice, his little
ohin pushed forward, and making them come to my side of the table,
to ask if I wanted a second helping: And théy obeyed hims
Towards the end of the dinner he called out to Nella, Renato's
wife, a small, really animal creature with a man's voice, and when,
she came to the table she leaned otrer him and said quietly, her
teeth gritted together, 'Remember you*re nine and a half, nine and
a half', but nevertheless she gave him exactly the number of.
stuffed tomatoes he asked for, with some olive oil ànd sauce. He
sat so authoritatively in his chair, his back quite straight, his
but taking her
eyes clear and black, nev er looking up at her, xuckxxxug1x
obedience for granted, giving his arders
aixpenplexesesztexisassrahagathadx
to the air in front of


takes :her breast. out. of her.dress to show us what a young and.
tendeiribody" she stillthas, he-taris-ais-hend-akay'abrruptly and
: : won*tjoin 1. inathe, leughterw.a 1O 1! 0.13
Wh's pretty-youing-Women: come to. thé house he invites them
weither to look at; his photographs,-Which people say really are
superb, (he:-won't show. then.to men---except, tothe-local monks who
invite. him-to dinner now. and then to. sée the .new .ones)* and include
and. aristooratio
some.of the mpsti-lovely/Wonne inthe city, or eise. to. posé for a
rarely refuse aftér they've
: : photograph themselves, Which they *XXXX*HEXS******EX**XXE*XS
heard the names
MEXTEREXTNX : XXXXXXXXXXX of the others.
C TLA t
lihs
ala: V, if N


hime Then he came into my room, whioh leads off the dining
room,. and told me about the familyts visit to Ponza, the island
that is three-hours. boat-ride from Anzio, how he had.seen' a great
ship, the Cristofero Colombo, on its way to America, and how the
pilot had throttlèd the engine af the boat es they drew near. to
the island shore, and how smoothly theby had swerved towards the
land, bobbing up and down alightly, on a sea utterly blues the -
rooks showing a B trange red under the water, soft anf shimmering,
and the island green and brown, huge and humped, before them. I
He asked me whether London wàs also an island in the sea, as.he'a
heard, and I said, 'Nos but it has a riverzizxzHax: E
and : boa ts along it. Ho wanted to know if these boats had
engines ' and I said; 'Yes,* He nodded and murmured, staring at
the ceiling, lost in the silent and hot noom, *Ah, then theytre
motorboats, launches-a-motoscafi, scialuppe?* And after that he
turned towards the wall end went to sleep, like a child in a
drifting' oarless rowboat on the calmést and darkest of rivers,
windleds and unpeopled. I leaned back on my pillow, my feet up
and read a little, then
Maddalena came in from Work,
knooked at my door and carriéd him upstairs a
The rest of the family were out a Thè marchose was at the
sea with-friends from the office 1 # :and wouldn 't be back until
the last train at midnight. - Michele was at the cinema, where
a misical was - showing, and Luciena had gone with : the marchese's
house)
sister Vittoria (who also lives in the atatez) and Angelina to
a: house at the back, behind the vineyard, where they W ere invited
to dinner and drinks. While I was reading, after Dino had been
taken off to bed; I heerd laughter an d music coming from beyond
the vines, and I thought how this sound no longer made me feel
lonly. and abandoned as it used to once. * Thère was a mervellous
silence in the house, something very rare, The house is capable


of evorything, has known everything from brutality to the
lightest infatuationa
The other day Luoiana came into my room at sundorn, efter
I had opened my ohutters to let in the oool eir, and leaned out
of the window, looking at the peach treee, with the garden lying
in an unoustomary stillness, and said, *I love my house, you know..."
It'e true, these silent pauses nake one love the houses
I remember last night tenderly, how the pillow. felt egainet
my baok, how RE I and the book in my hand and the silence and
the - slight wind that went through the bushes just below my vi ndow,
bringing in gusts of music and laughtors were all one dreema
The marchesets attitude towarde me has ohanged ecrrpat-tend Ces
since last year, and I'm Bure this is due to Luciana's subtie
persuasions. He no longer watches me as. hè used to, and he
even tells me oonfidences about other people samet imes, especially
about young women, whioh wouldbhave been impossible Bef ores I
think he believod last year that I was making love either to his
wife, who ie nearly twenty years older than mes or to Angelina,
which at least was feasible. : I romember how he usod to follow me
about the house and how he would al waye call down to Luciana if
she and I stayed up late tatking togethor* He hated to hear us
talk in whispers, in the eilence of the house, and God knows what
went through hie head. Now we stay up talking until the ea ly
houra and he never once oalls domn to her that she must get Bome
sleep, that she'll be fit for nothing in the morning, that it
- isn't right, it isn't right! Somehow she oonvinced him of the
sillinese of his fears, and apart from that he has seen me vith
girls in town,
gmngxaths
ànd hears that I'm attrae ted to Rhis one and not
that, and.so forth,
During tho day I am always given Angelina's room to vork
in, and this was the same last year a It always pained him then,


that I should be going into the women's quaterts with my young
manhood and using their dressing-table as a desk; and aleeping
on their bed after tunch. I worked hard last year and went out
very little, which gave him more opporunituy to imagine me, up to
no goods. Iremember one evening reading something aloud to
myself, alone in hor room, and realising after a, time that I could,
he heard voutside, Angel ina was late in from work that evening,
and I hoard him walk along the corridor and pause outside my dour,
listening. He apparently didn*t know that she was still out of
the houses I stoppod reading aloud, then decided to find out if
he really had been listening. I got up and went across to the
lavatory, whieh is opposi te her door. His bedroom is at the end
of the corridor, and: ds I padsod across I glanded to my right and
saw him standing thero, buttoning his shirt in the mirror and at
the same time staring down the corridor, I locked the lavatory
door; then heard -him walk down to Angelina's room, enter it,
then leave again and go back to his bedroome After a time I
came out and.returned to the room, olosing the door, whon I
heard him walk down the corridor onee again and look this time
in the lavatory, presumably to see if I and his daughter had eone
in there together. By now he was bewildered, and felt hinself in
the midale of a ' plot. He suddenly pushed the door of my room
open, imitated a look.of surprise at finding me there and then
began fiddling uselesely with some cases on the floors I'm sure
he wanted to book under the bed but lackod the neoka
Last year I thought him a sort of monsters creating a vorld
in his own image, but * now I know this isn't true, and that his
belief in lcohery going on all round him is a kind of hopee
At lunch last Sunday he was talking to me about a young woman thoy
know who lives in Rome wi th her mother, and said ahe was 'very
Roman indeed', that is to say, 'Intelligent, passionate and


cunningst': no one knew how many men sheta had, she was always
s0 sedret in her comings and goingé, she was oharming to everyone
and gave the improssion of sweetness and good will, but she could
embrace one man on Monday and another on Tuesday, without romember-
ing either; she could make love once out of whim and then look
rather -lost and innodent when thè man suggested it a seoond tim *
Last night his sister Vottoria auddenly announded that she -
wanted to sleep downstairs, and he whispored inmy hearing. that :
it was only because she wanted me to seduce her, though bhe in
over sixty. I repeated this to Luciana this morning inoredulously,
and shé said with a little smile that the marohese was probably
quite rights
The young woman he epoke ab outs 'intelligent, passionate
and cunning's came last Sunday. She is tall with dark hair in'
na tural rings, and though her face is full of movements quick
hasda
and smilinga hor eyes seem strangely trappedo* EXXC REEX
She keops her own dounsel, seams very much
al one a Sometimos she can hardly bring herself to opén hor
mouth--wit seems outiof misery, liko a person dragging hortelf
out of a blaek marsh. So. she provides the family with: opposta
unities to hurt her. she offers no resistance; they seem to
smell suffering in other people; they want to araw:a littie nora
blood, their faces sullen, heavy, poutings like people in a plot,
their pleasures deathlys From Silvia, a fats pale young vomany
who lives in the house behttnd the vineyard, and who has neit thér
a lover nor Work, wentsva little exoitement; all the people who
visit us provide it; having a good brain, dlear and shrowd;
she wiil maké the spark for any malice that: the others need.


She usually comes in to tea. in the afternoon, and is virtually
a one of the family, providing the sting of wit and threwd observe
ations Her voice is ax harsh, and when she Speaks against people
it has a special cutting tone; she soems to be taking revonge for
éverything ltfe has refused her. I heard her say the other day
that Meriasasthe 'intélligent, passionate and
cunning' girl-.
waen't at: all beautiful to her ming: she had a loose mouth, too,
large and open, and her. hips were too: wide; she said it as though
she was: killing her, with a swifta hungry sounda And Signora
Flavia saye that while Maria is a person of distinotion, yot she
is perhaps a little too sweet. And other people say, *oh,
Maria is too ertifioaal in the way she speaks #
I enjoy being with Luciana and Maria alone, just the three
of us; we çan speak to. each other intimately; each of tis having
a painful secret, s0 that we have nothing to lose. sometimes (np.
Luciana and I take the bus to Rome and. go to Neriats flat, where
she lives with her. mother, and we sit behind stEINE closed thutters
in the hot half-derkness in the afternoon, with yellow, slight,
gleaming lines showing through the shutter-slats, while Maria's
mother pads softly across the stone kitohen floors bringing cool
drinks, going to the refrigerator; and when it's cool and the sun
has gone down behind the curved, smooth block of flats close by,
leaving the spage betveen in shadom, we sit out on the verandah.
in canvas chairs, at, the foot of the steps leading up to the kitchen,
overything about us of stone or cement, new; cut off; from the rest
of. the citys a great static islana like a memorial; with occasional
square lawris, excéllently cut and tmall, with hèro and there young
trees, The moment you enter this stone worid of flate thorugh
a gate, along a special road, thore it a new coolness. and quiet,
and the noises - of tha main street alose by fall baok.
It is so' different from. this house where the noise starts


Boon after dawn with someone rushing dovn the stairs likea ton
of ooals or with Dino's deefening criée or with the radio turnod
on suddenly at full strength, as if in vengeful enjoyments or
esle Nella the maid shouts to'her own Son to "Come in, you vagabondt;
in that deep, dry beapt-voice of herse If you've slépt well it's
all right but if your dreans have,been hedvy and full of the past
these noises are like a fresh assault, to keep the wounds open all
days
Maria told me à few days ago that she could hardly bear talking
to the marchese, hated it when he touched her. And when I said .
that he'd called her 'intelligent, passionaté and cunning' : Bhe
repliéd that he only spoke like this to give the impreseion of
intuitivé gifts, which he lacked; he had only heard someone else
himelf
chancé
use those words about her, and decided to use. them, when ap opporte
ctt came she said ho oreated a complicated world for himself-se
a world where there vere secret assignations all the time. end evorye
thing was plot and subterfuge, and the reality wes the opposité of
Hte
appearance, # 00 that having created # mystery fer - tusetf he had to
Han Re
penotrate 1t; amd/ congratulatelhimelf on his clevarness. He doos
it like a conjuror's triok and at first you don't realise that the
world he has made is completely false.
He calle her cunning, she saye, bocause he can't allow himself
to believe that, being a typical 'Roman Womant, she is simply une
happys and not the materialisation of his bechereots dreams. I
notice thet he docan't searoh her body with his eyes as he doos
the other womon: instead, he puts the whole of her lifee-4which
he thinke he knows about---into the laboratory, of his desires;
hé turns her into a daydream.
Sonetimes he will look at a woman with his eyes serewed up.
anxiously, as if on some painstaking investigation; - he has to
vérify every detail, He séems to murer women inwardly---even


his own wife, to kéép her as an object of pleasure; they mustn't
have quite human lives.
His work, which 1e a few hours évery day at the oustoms house
in Rome, at the office* but' in faot waving the heavy truoks in
and out of the main gate, and exemin'ing the arivers pàsses, doesn't
mean a 'thing to hime He goes to the cinema sometines, rides his
little acdotervinto the. village to drink a coffees I've never
seen him read a newspaper. He only quickens, and becomes really
fluent and at his ease, when women are mentioned; and also when-
the Roman aristooracy is being talked about-4*there àil his graci
iousress comes out.
Last night he came with us to Maria's flat and I natohed hoin
verandah as it grew darker and.
talking to her on the xeccantsagrbuxthnxtnxx****
the 1ighte in
the flat-wondows behind ua' went up one after enother and our voices
warm, twinkling dusk,
became more muffied in the komigpenrataak
He told her that
he was attracted by everything in her, by her voice, the ereot way
she sat in a 'chair, her oalm'and still eyes, her long, dreamy walky
but he realised that he had no chance of making love to her, being-
compared with her-man oid man (he is firtywhine), and perhaps not
her kind *méntallyt. Heal8o talked about the *******x *
taxxansagx boy vho thre her over a short time ago, called Frenoow
That boy, he said, was never in love; this was what chiefly
are
worried aim about Franco (they **X* related), that he heemed
incapablé of love. Maria daid to this quietly that he might
simply be blind to Franco's reai nature, but he shodk his head
pleacan tly and oried, 'No's I've known Franco froma child, hete
been in my houseduewhy, every day for three yéars or 00 at one
timet* He was in a muoh better position to judge the boy than
most people, certainly more thannthose-wowith a glittering sidel
gianoe at her-e-who fell in love with hims The faot was; he
said, that the boy got tired of his girle after hetd elept with


them once or twice (a deliberaté thruet at her, to see if it
was true or not), to which Maria said that this meant nothing,
only that he didn't love moat of the girls he went with, :
But does Haria know the. whole of tho storys I wonder?
After the marchese had left the dark terrace I tried to find out.
Perhaps she knows * She knows at loast that Franco is in love,
She said, *The marchése must be even blindercthan I thoughtt*
But; I said, "Nofamaglancing at her--'the oleverest people ere
often blind in these things, whon it touches thomselves---while
the washerwomen, and the milkmen know the facts." 3he didn't reply
to this, so I have no way of telling whether shé understands every-
thinge I kept quiet, and me talked about sonéthing else,
strange hov often the nême Franco comes upa He has put quite
a spell on "people with his. gaiety. He is tall and lively, with
rather fair hair.and good teeth, not at all handsome but eraceful
and kindly; full of the sun, He jokes about and then falls into
a quiét mood, unpredictably, and I notice how attentive ho is of
other péople, never letting them dwindle into sadness if he can
help it. 5 Franco is twenty-two now, and at this. moment. is far
away, in tho north, morking on a farm. Luciana, Vittoria (his'
mother) and the marchese all talk about him at length, and
eepecially when Maria is with us: thoy think they're càs'ing her
pain, and perhaps they're right. I romémber the marchése telling
her one afternoon last week, when most of the others wero out of
the room, how Franco sometimos used, for apparently no reason,
to go into his room suddenly, throw himself on the bed and burst
into tears This worried and disturbed the marchese.
But doesn't he realiso that he caused the tears, partly?
It would be a dhock to him if he aid. Or does, he really imow
everything; is he trying to protect his oln honour by sceming
not to knon? Yet ghat honour can he think ho has, at this


point? Hets a marchese at a time whon there are no titles.
He has trained people to givo him that name by hard persistende day
after day;: that is some achievement after two world vars, tobe
celled marchese without it. seeming ridiculous; : you have to adnire
him for it..
I wonder if-he knows everything and suffers, watching the
divining eyés of the peoplé olose to,him---people like mes who
know the situation? Once. or twico. iast year he gave littie
indications that he knew, I wonder? :
I remembér Franco ceming down from the north last year, very
bronzed. and oléan-1ooking, and what terrible querrels this causad
between the marchese and Luciana. Oni the evaning before, he wont
back I remember Frando nas sitting wi th. her on the terrace over-
looking the grevel path, where the trees move softly at night,
and I remomber how, as it got later, the marchese came downstairs
again in his pyjamas and snapped at her---she must dome to bed, this
kind of life. Was ridiculous, it was already past midnight! She
looked 1ikoa young girl in the half-derkness. She a uply nodded
to him each time, tant hor hoart was quiet, she was unnoved. by any-
thing hé said, and there was about her that ruthlessness and obe
stinacy of a wife in love with someone olso, Frano to simply iooked
the other wey, into thé deriness of the garden, while the merchese
talked. They had both hoped ho would be asloep. by now.
Franco had the bedroom near the kitchen; on thé grourd fioor,
while all the other bedrooms were upsteirs, and if the Count had
feilon asloèp they would both have gone there and locked the door.
I noticed that whenever Franco was in town with me, arinking
at one of the bars, or in a party of people, he was lighter, less
thoughtful, as if he'd re-ontered the world from a too-torrible
heppiness, perhepe * The other day Luciana showed me a lotter
from him in which be said that overyrhere he went withbher, the


seslaural
smallest-caré, a hotel-rcom in Naplos whero thoy'd sat and watohed
the beach far below, the roadsthey drove alonga tho hotol bedrooms
at night, the stations vhere they net and said goodbyé; became
remarkable faxxkin and lovély for him, undor a: spedial light,
primevally brilliont, Werdiens, and it he éver sat these places
again, without hor,, they mould still be under that light, as if
sheta baptised them for Bim;
And she wrote in reply that she'novor felt shame in his
presenée, they could do anything to each other without sensing
the forbidden; that she couldn't live an hour without thinking
Ébout him and dreaming him backs Only When they-talked to each
other. did they find real rest, and compared with that all. the othor
talk they did was irksomes. Their first momenti of neeting again
weo always unbearably eostatic.
she askod me if he was suoh a strong, golden présence for ao
as well, for example whon we. were all at table? And I said, tYeB 6
ho has.so much light in him, like the sun. But she pressed the
question harder; leaning forward with strajnod eycs like a'young
girl, and asked, didthis prosence cancel.out tho rett of the
world far me as it did for her, aid I find the samo Bolace in,his
talk, did other people, especially other girls, feel exaotiy whet: she
felt, except that she was happy en ough to passess him? . This nade
ne smile, and I said, yee, it's truo ho has light inhim,. but these
aro your feolings because youtre in love with him,
: It began by accident and hadh't meant.it to continue. Sho
WEG joking with him, sitting on his bed after everybody else was 4
upstairs, and when she ruffled his heir he pulled her tomards him
auddenly, still her néphew, and thon, swiftlys in a kind of eldep
whore the house and its clucking people had slipped aways they
embraced each other; and it was like the first primoval love
of dre ams * They left onch other ashamed and amed. Next morne


even
ing she told him hetd been widked to/think of doing suoh a thing,
and they must both forget about it as soon as possible. At lunoh,
at a table of ten or twelve people, she told everyone how Frando
seemed to prefer older nomen, and she watched him blush painfulty;
he thought she'd deserted him, deserted hér own act. But that
night, when'everyone had gane to bod, they went to the same bedroom
by tho kitchen, and their love was this time wilder, because they
were rebolling dgainst their own commands, and ageinat a world whioh
couldn't come up to their dreens. Fron that time on she never
scolded him ogain, never triod to stop herseli, And she began to
think of him ovory hour of the day. Being away from him was now
as pain; though apperently no one else notided this.
At that time Franco had actualiy beèn iiving in the house,
with vittoria his mother; hè was a frailor and more sheltered
person thon than he is nowa He had no E ork and Would sit for
hours in the room overlooking the gravel path, playing with the
radio, réading.
Cne dey he : came to her and said hè could bear it no longer, ho
was so much in bove. He didn't say at first with whom, and the
was confident es sho looked up at him and smiled that it was herself.
But, without moving
Menxhextnaizksz
from his position, he told her that it was her
daught ter Angelina, and that he must marry her.>
> She wented to scream sométhing, but sat there watching him,
her mouth a little open, hardly daring to breathe; and 1t was olear
from his eyes that he had no idea of her pain. Instead, he stood
in front of har lika a eche
And she hadn't aven noticed him and Angelina together. They'd
takon walks toge thor, they'd been to tho cinema but never onae had
that thought crossed her mind. She Buddenly felt her age, the
différence of years betwe en thems For weeke after this she suff-
ered the kind of lonelinessue-0rying alone at night in her room,


awake "the whole night, and the next night again, in a
delirium of grief---which we all hope will néver come again after
youth:
: She spent hours on her bed ups tairs 1istening for a noise,
her door open, knowing that he and Angelina were below. She lay
smoking digarette after cigarette, starting whenever she heard the
murmur of a voice or heerd her daugh ter dough, thinking it was a
passionate cry, or when the divan creaked, its springs clanging
quietly t ogether. And she would only rest, closing her eyes for
the first time, when Angelina came into the bedroom and lay down
at her side, and she heard his door close downstairs. For monhhs
now Luciana no longer slept wi th her husband.
She and Angelina said little to each other during those dags 6
She thought hér daugh ter : knew what she was suffering, but couldn 't
be sure. She à asked her suddenly onde, was she really in love with
Franco (as a mother would ask the question), but Angelina shrugged
her shoulders, pouting, and said she didn't know. At any rate,
Angelina didn't marry Franco. it wasn't mentioned aga in. I
think she felt the will of her mother' drawing her back from him,
without knowing quite what was happening; she couldn't face the
separation from her mother that marriage would involve, and perhaps
Luc iana worked on, this. And she couldn't bear her silent dis-
approval. Nobody in the family was proc against thati So she
slo owly gave way, as a'bull in the ring, with the sword deepmin
his nèck and the picadors drawing closér, in the heat and deafening
cries, turns slowly round, his head lower and lower, and gives in,
slips down on the sand and doens 't move again. Luciana had the
sword, and plunged it in quicklym hér eyes closed---this was the
daughter she adored and slept wi th ev ery night.
A few weeks later Angelina came - to her and said that she was
no longer interested - in Franco, and ma de a face as if to say that


she was disgusted. : This meant for Luciana that he'd tried to
maké love to her. ân d failed; she was deliriously happy. : She
took it to be a miracle, and she an d Franco made love xttk again
- with the same easy wildness as at first. On :his side, he seemed
to have: recovered from Angelina; nhe no longer described her :
loveliness at length to Luciana, : nor : did he say again that he wanted
to marry her:
Angelina clearly. wants children, and perhaps a. husband; but'
she would'.have the first without the second.. She is always feeling
111, she suffers these peduliar spasms of'spité and hatred, which.
make her shoulders slope more than usualy, her eyes dim and. mean;
her. voice becomes a murmur, she seems a fierce beast caught,"
She is strong physically and when her anger: is up she. oan be oruel
with her hands. I've. seen her pull Dino's hair.with all her
strength, and in a moment of bitterness' twist :the cat's tail; and
most of her joking takès the form of horseplay. Last night, at
a. small party held in Nina's house behind the vinéyard, she pulled
a ohair back just-as I was about to sit down after a: dance and I
OTE TOT
"CIC 3t: 3.y
landed' 'on nthe floor; she hit a young man on' his back. a terrifio
biow' while he H was TL "ini gazing pot; out of thë window, : watohing the" moon come
METT;
TC :: 5 I
Rmcking -
up; she'was constantly prlling peopie E EMME burning their: bare
u r, t .
armsever so" slightlywith thé. tip'of"her cigarétte While they
talked. When shé does s"this 'people iook away in émbarrassment;
Luciana Fasks her why she he"has" to bë rbadi iike.this. Angelina 's
snr uitn. :
Ait
gatatgin horseplày' was once gdiety, but it's isn't now.
3W: 1 Tint:
Evéry day she goes to a. huge loc omotive factory s outh of Rome
iT T
and Worke în the office just" béhina thè Assembly-room: The noise
isi: IT DitA
is continuous and' déafening, but whenstat f'ask"her about it she says


she finde it oamforting; in faot, after three yabre she coulan't
do without it She comes baok to the house silent and : tired in
the aveninge, proud of having a grom-up job: Bhe bits down with-
out spoaking, sighing like an old woman, not answering Luciana'e
solioi tous questions, shrugging and yawning, and her face becomes
as ugly as a pretty faoe can bea If I happen to bo talking to
Luciana, quietly and easily as we do, she will out across the
conversation with *Did you think to order buttor today?* or
*Ehy weo Dino dipping about in the pool, you know he comes in with
his feet eovered in mud, and then Nella odmplainse--t'
Her work at the looomotive faotory is à daily genuflootion
to law and order and reapectability, all tho thinge ehe feole She
misses at home I suppose thie is how pooplo whose vork has no
personal meaning oan walk the streats with their héads up: we
heve a shamed sense of being different from Everyone Elso when
re *rè young, dirtier perhaps, and when we get a job like Everyone
Else it seems like e-proud new status when it*s roally nothing at
all.
But now and then Angelina talks to me quietly too, remini ecings
about the island of Ponza-a-she seems as fascinated as her ltttie
brother; about how your feet shon blue when you put them in tho
nétor, how glorious it is to approach the island through a rough
séa, with the boat riding out of the waves and then nosing down
again, and how, if you stand on the tallest rook, you ean 30G the
whold land and tho limitless sea all round it, green and blue and
touohed wi th foany white; and how there is one onild on the island,
a boy who serves at tablé, with a proud and angelio fado, at whom
you have to lock all the time because he moves 80 slowly and
perfeotly, like a chosen ereature, with a Smile that cancels out
the lives Hè lead, or she tolls mB about a journey she made
south onoe, when she sam. Isohia and wanted to live there, how she


loves islande, how if she married. shè would want to take her
hueband amey. énd be alone with him, separate from the world,
on. just such, , islande... She never talks about peopie in this
quiet; dreaming way, her eyes for the firet time looking right'
beyond the warld: she doesn't really truet people, nor can she
believe easily that they*re as olean-living and decent as she i8,
At the factory she goes to the canteen as little aB possible,
while the other office-workers go domn in a great party' every
afternoon 6
I noticed at the party the other evening, when she was tired
and perhaps a bit ashamed of her horseplay, she sat at the edge
of tho room satching the rest' of us, half-smiling, lost in our
movements and expressi ons a céncelling herself out as 1f she'a
suddenly turnod into an old woman with goldon haire I notioed
her eyes especially, how droaming they nero, as if to say, *Ah,
I belonged to life once.s
This morning I was woken soon after dawn by Nellate terrible
shout ingi you Beldom wake up peacefully here, never in eilence.
But silence when it doeé fall over the house is moving and glor-
ious, like the proclamation of Bomething you*ve forgotten and
thought was impossible again+
Tho trouble was sterted by Michele. He : came - down the stairs
imitating a ton of ooaas as usual and, piling Pél ion ôn Ossa, with i
dirty bere feet just as Nella was srubbing the tiled floor.
she askad him not to tread where sheid already workeds He asked
her wasn't she pai d for her work, and this infurgated her, doming
from a fourteen-year-old boy. She bogan shouting et the top of
her voioé, and this was where I regained consciousness. - She


put her voice,right next to my door: evon when-she is saying
kindly and amsing things thoy sound liko the falost insulto,
and when sho xatse shouts you fool 1ike a man being punished
for acrimo he aidntt know ha had committed.
Ail day thero are quarrels, shouting, the slamming of doors,
the calling ofnnames and. sereamed curses. So seldom does silence
fallwawand at any moment it maiy be broken with deliborate murder-
ous enjoyment-uwthat every day toachos you a botter approciation
of it. It may be Dino sliding down the bannister of the stairs,
making a procipitous rumbling noise thet fills the whole house
es he turns the cornor into the straight, or Hichele pushos opén
a door vith his foot, making it alam against the wall, or the
marchese arrives suddenly,on his motor-sdootor and stalks into.
the big room, peering abouts Nothing can bo prediote de Nella
may be polite ênd qiét and evon amusing non, doing her morl
willingly, looking after , everyone, and thon, not a minute later,
she*ll be soreaming hor head aff and taking her own son by hie
neck, in a firm grip, and giving him great smadks across the face,
or decrying the house for boing dirty and degenerate and a oink of
vice, and for paying her too aittle.
huciana
Sometimes the mornings open marvellously, with afis - L
bringing a cup of steeming biack coffee into my room as the Bun..
comes through the shutters on to the light tiléd floor, and the
house is eilent after the children have left for,school, and the
daughters and the marchese have left for work; then breakfast
ie prepared and laid for me at a dorner of the table in the big.
she
room; and / Ie
sits with me smoking and talking whilo I pat.
Thie morning, after Nellats shouting had stopped, I found
there was.no coffee, no tea, no bread. There was filth, every-
where, the ohild Dino was whimpering in a corner, and. even
Angelinats room, which ie a refuge for mo, was full of Nellats


brushing and sorubbing things, with thé bedciothes all over the
floor. Luoiana had gone to town., I'walked about thè. house. -
duraing them. all, finding suddenly that I'd become part of the
family--- its hatred. Perhaps my rage had begun to wear the
same dark; mean end yet strangely ardent look a
I blamed
Luciana with all the otherse4-for the chaos, the filth, the way -
you had. to ecratdh for food, Then I savi the bus from the village
stop at the end of the path and Luoiana step down. Ana et onée
a cool stream of the gentléet good will
a HHdden-moHTIEE d
seemedto flow into tho, garden, like a sudden. mountain breeze
from the peaks deand the misty, sweating Vineyards, that look
blue and light-brown - and sometimes grey in the distance, and seem
to be aiting for God to step downg de H
I grew quiet and
walched
wadched her malking neatly down the gravel path, her hair grey at
the sides, her eyes. sharp and bladk; che was distant like Bamoone
in'a pietures The rooms. felt easy again; Dino stopped whininge
I à went to the kitchen to'met her and she made me tea, the best
China blend, and gave me horcspocial morning dish of bread and
and garlio, parsley and basil chopped
tomatoes soaked with oil, EA
* % NESHAL XaXI
over thome
*You must be 80 hungry,' she said.
The lunch today was quietor than any. I've known here cn
a Sundey, when there are usually vistors and cars draw up
outside the front porch ond there are incessant hand-shokinge
and eries of welcome loften simulated, to hide bitter fanily
feuds); the doge bark, poople run up and down the steps,
the children are exoited, the radio is ewitohed on, the catsawa
five of them, including a slim, elegant Siamese4--croep under


peoplet legs. or jump on to the table and steal the salami or
lick the butter. But xaxxaxtayxthz today the only visitors were
Rosa and Flora, : who are realyymembers of of the family, and. boing
Vittoria*s childron---Franco's sisters--waro gentlo and easy;
and as they live in Rome thèy have no mark of the' hara village on
them,
Neither the marohese nor Angelina were therewe-that is, the"
two most nerve-wracking elemente vere missing. It has occurred
to ma lately that he's really shy of people and makes a special :
harah effort to get acrosa to them; he is always the first up
to bed in the afternoon, leaving everyone else at teble, perhaps
knowing in his * mysterious and blind-seeming way that they can
talk and smile better without hims As for Angelina, she takes
command of all the practical thi inge at tablo, smacking Dino's
knees when he won'tsit properly in * his ohair, shouting acrosa. at
Michele in: her roguh, housewife's voice to eat decently and not.
to snatoh tho bread, calling out to Nolla to bring in.the next
course, tomarking on the taste of this and that, with sudden
surrpetitious glances under her browe with hor at table there
is more disdipline bat 1é88 peace
Today Luoiana was in charge, governing our spirita. Only
in Dino did there remain a trace of the ugly, druel wiil, but
Vittoriats daughters were so gentle with him that he started to
find himself amusing, a grown-up wit; and aftar he'd got Un all
laughing he even ate decently, to keep hie position of oquality
Wde
with
duit
The teble felt quite adrift from the villagos
Then everyone went away quietly to sléep. The house félli into
an afternoon silence, with the sun at its hottest gloning hour,
the curtains over the french windows stirring and billowing out
with the slow, dool breeze from the seàa lhen overybody had
gone Maddalena put the radio on quietly, and aftor the first notes


I came out to listen. It was Gavaradossi's arie on the
battléments of Sant Angel6, from Tosca, and Maddalena made it
louder as I sat domns realising I'a dome to listen. ' Thère
was a snatoh of music, like scniething from another world-
where I might never be agdin-wwand then Nella's shouting started
with. a double vengeful force, like a.reminder. The dishes
clatterod together in the kitohen, the loose valves. of the radio
made the voice and orchestra a blur whenever thore was a erescondo
or the piteh rosea
And latér that day, as if. it had been arranged to coincide
with the abénece of the, marchese and Angelinawewor perhaps they'd
left the housé in' a huff, after they*a heard he was oaming-
Franco appeared from the north for ten deys holidays, The firet
two or three days were aweltering and sullen, but with a strange
eestatic excitement in the airs - The furniture and the garden
outside looked mystericus, and Luciana went round the house with
glowing eyess The, marchese and Angelina came back, glum and
mute, and Angelina haraly greeted Franco. - The. marchese was
gentle and pleanant wi th, him, wtehoing him from under his éyow
broms, with a trace of admirationa 1 Slowly the glbon entered
Luciand, too, as the time for him to go back drew nearer, Her.
eyes glowed no longers She seemed to Know somethinge : Suddenly,
two or three days before hw was due to letve, he wab gones
Luciena came to me in the afternoon, arooping end weak, With a
dold she'a caught from Francos ana asked me, coulan*t"I find her
a job in Rome s.omewhere, anything to stop her thinking about
him? That day was sad and nervous, full.of rain and' low, thick :
clouds. In the evening she and Vittoria and I were sitting by
the radio, at a little table whero we sometimes coffee in the
afternoon, with a candle alight in the middle beoause tho'elect
ricity was failing, due to the storms outsides 4 The house was


extraordinarily silent, the windows - were tight shut against the
dead; sultry airs Vittoria had. beon seeping all day because hor
son had 'neglected' her all the time he was home---nevor once asked
her to # come to the city, never stayed in the house with her:: all
because Luciana alaimed him every minute, Shé sat in hor chair.
sewing coloured designs on to canvas equares as alwayos her head,
ben forward, a cigarette in. the corner of her moth, a *** glass of
wine at her side, sighing every now and then, *Oh, Dio, Diot*, a
tear rolling down her oheek which she never' brushed away so that
Luciana would seé ita - And all the while Luciana and I vere tatk
ing in English, which ahe couldn't undrastand. Ludiana asked
me ir it seemed to me that Frando still loved her, if I. thought
that such love oould ever. die, if.it looked to me as,if it was
dying now.** Her eyes had a dark, oondemned look as she followed
my xaxis an swers, **XX*X*** bending forward,to listen, not wanting
to miss my. verdiot, though I said hardly anything; her face vas
paler then Itd ever.seen it before, thinner, her jaw very pointad,
the slimness of her cheeks making her eyes look, more pained and
wido-opena But mhenever I said, 'You're unhappy*, she shook her
heed and said, *NOST - The faot is that this nas Franoots last
visits Y Vittoria is to move away, to a place. of her CWn,. perhaps
with her daughters, and in future Franéo will 8o to them, on his.
holidaysa But Luoi iana douldn't bring herself to tell me yet.
For some reason. the index finger of hez right hand has Bwollen
blood-poisoning.
up and looks 11ke tamniagmexoning
She says. that when Bhe is
rested and happy she is never ill, that if her body went wrong it
was beoause of the way she felt inside.
Angelina seems to resent her mother's last burst. of passion
with Franco more than her own loss of- him. The marohese is stiil
mutes The passion rang through the house in the few daye thet
Franco was. here: the whole house was eostatid, under its moight.


Nothing elee seemed to go on* And everyone seemed powerless
against it. They gazed into éach other's eyes for hours en end,
it seemed, At table they never addressed a aord to other peoples
Its shere foroe seemed to bow othor people, and rémove their power
of oomplaint and criticieme It even séemod. to fascinate them,
Nobody really wanted to etop it, even Vittoria who sat axd in her
ohair and oried all the timé. The marohese was gentie and wan es
I've never knorn him befores
Gradually Dino makes his claims on Luciana againe tichele
has a fight in the viliage, ovér a girl: thè marohese has to go
down and Bettles it. Haria calls and there seems to. be a $light
glow of triumph in her eyee aB she 2ooks at Luciana. There is
another little dinner-party, with drinks, at the house behind the
vineyard, with Luoiane and Angelina ds guestss The marohese
dontinues to eleep aloné, And Angelina and hèr mother sleép
together as before. It is deoided to got rid of Renato and his
wife, to economises Soon the grapos will be gathered, and the
wine made in' the courtyard at the backs Signora Flavai has beon
avay all thie time, staying in Rone with Vittoria's two daughtess:
she had to be kept out of it, while the paseion was loose, She
comes back looking ary and remote: ahe is so old that the passion
is one part of the story she can no iongor grasp. Maddalena looks
a bhade mote sourly wise, But then the evenings draw ins A fire
is 1it in the hearth. We ell gather round it, drinking tho first
young wine, that goos straight to your head* And slowly we fro
captive again in our little dramas, and the house waits for another
yeer, and other victims, to unfolds