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

I4 6
MILITARY LIFE.
hither and thither of waiters, red in the face, utterly breathless
and confused by the unusual splendor and invasion of
customers ;
a wild coming and going from the interior to
the outside, from the exterior to the interioi, calling to one
another, and vicing with each other, until
they had completely
lost their heads. Before the door was a crowd of people with
wide-stretched eyes and mouth, gazing at the broadest galloons
and breasts most covered with medals. At the back of the
cafe, quite at the end, in a corner behind a table, surrounded
by a younger set of officers, on a raised seat, in a species of
niche or temple, was the beautiful little face of a girl,
over
which modesty and coquetry were amicably disputing the
space, amid so many unusual compliments, so many gentlemanly
courtesies, passionate protests, audacious petitions, and
such a twisting and turning of slender waists and legs incased
in buckskin.
All eyes are fastened
upon that lovely figure, beautiful face,
and there they rest until she disappears from view. They are
no sensuous thoughts, images, or desires which she awakens at
that moment ; oh, no, although she arouses in our hearts (like
a weary desire for peace and affection) a vague melancholy,
and we suddenly feel ourselves alone, abandoned and discouraged.
The woman recalls to our memory the gentle, quiet
pleasures of domestic life, which, in comparison with our hard
life as soldiers, especially at those hours and moments in
which we only experience the discomforts and bitterness, not
the consolations nor the proud satisfactions, of such an existence
make us seem almost unhappy. That woman's face
rouses in our minds the image of our mother, sister, or some
one dearer still ; and, when it flees from our sight,
we bow