Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

Il6
MILITARY LIFE.
one of surprise and contentment without
from him :
even taking his eyes
" Who can this original be ? " he thought, as he
went down into the court and walked up to him.
"
Why are you laughing and twisting your hands about ? " he
asked in a severe tone.
And the soldier, although a trifle embarrassed, continued to
smile.
" But do you know you are an idiot ? I ask you what you
are laughing at ? "
"Well," replied the conscript, dropping his eyes and
pulling at his coat with both his hands "
; I knew that you
were in this regiment, and they
have sent me here too. You
won't remember me, of course ;
but I recollect you ;
it
is
three years since you went away ;
I knew you, and your family
too ;
but you did n't know us, though we lived near you, and
in the morning I always saw you pass when you went hunting,
and ... we came from the same place, you see."
" Ah ! now I understand," replied the officer, looking at him
attentively to see who he could be.
" I knew that you had gone to be an officer when you went
away, and that you had entered
the college, ^and then you did
not come back. . . . Since then they have made over the
facade of the dome, and opened a cafe in the square, almost
as large as this court, and it is
always full of people."
" Wait, wait ;
now I remember. Is n't your name Renzo ? "
"Yes!"
"You lived in that little house next the church outside
the town, I
think."
"
Exactly
! In the little house outside the town, opposite the
mill."