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

A BUNCH OF FLOWERS. 131
had a number of bouquets and a large basket of confetti.
The streets were crowded with people, and there were innumerable
carriages, elegant maskers, a great confusion and noise,
and a very beautiful corso. My mother, according
to her custom,
took no part in the gaiety of the fete, and rarely spoke.
From time to time, when the carriage of some friend passed,,
she put a bunch of flowers into my hand and had me throw
them, holding me by my sash so that I should not fall head
first in flinging them. My little friends threw me flowers too,
and greeted me with shouts, laughing heartily at my grotesque
costume. I laughed at them, and we enjoyed ourselves to our
hearts' content. Much more than now, between ourselves,
for then our glances, thoughts, and desires were not attracted
by a beautiful masker stretched comfortably out in a carriage,
with a small, shapely foot swinging cunningly out of one door
1
and a debardeur s shirt falling on one side."
" That has nothing to do with it."
"We enjoyed ourselves hugely. At a certain point, however,
weary with shouting and swinging my arms about, I sat down
to take breath. At the entrance of Via Po and Piazza Castello
there was a file of cavalry soldiers and carabineers, as
grave and motionless as if they were at a funeral. They
looked
now at the carriages, now at the people, without saying a word,
exchanging a smile, or giving the slightest sign of curiosity,
pleasure, regret, or ennui ; they seemed like automatons. The
crowd pressed forward on every side, undulating, mingling, and
making a great' noise ;
from the windows of the neighboring
house, which were filled with ladies and maskers, fell showers
of
comfits, from the carriages a shower up at the windows, and
from the street another into the carriages. It was a fierce