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

1
34 MILl TARY LIFE.
lie gardens. He was with a number of his comrades, and was
talking and '
laughing heartily. Look, there is the soldier to
whom I threw the '
bouquet
I said to my mother, ! pulling
her by the dress. 'Be quiet,' she '
replied. Do not take any
notice of him.' I could not understand the reason for this
command ;
I looked at him ;
he looked fixedly at me, and
recognized me, started with surprise, and '
'
said, Oh !
My
mother seized me by the arm and dragged me on. After
that day I did not see him for more than a year.
The following
year, on one of the last nights of carnival, on returning
from the theatre with the family, I went to the window a few
moments before going to bed, and stood a short time looking
out into the street through the glass. The street was dark and
it was snowing. From time to time maskers kept coming out of
the opposite house, which was a cafe and hostelry ; they scattered,
followed each other, disappeared ;
new ones arrived, and
meeting and recognizing each
other crowded together, making
a terrible racket with their shouts in the falsetto, and confusedly
exchanging
invitations and salutations. A band of
cavalry appeared at that point. The maskers began to dance
around them, shouting and clapping their hands as they did so.
The soldiers, enveloped in their mantles, passed on without
giving any sign of having seen them ;
but one of them turned
toward our house, and seemed to be looking at my window.
'
Can it be he ? ' I thought, as I opened
it. At the same moment
the soldier pufc
one hand out from under his mantle, gave
a salute, and passed. The following morning I learned from
the porteress that some days before a cavalry soldier had entered
our portico, glanced at the stairs as if uncertain whether
he would go up or not, and had then gone away. A few