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

"
Then, as I told you, she was sent to the hospital in Sicily ;
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promised to marry her. She believed him, and had lost her
head from pure content. They really say, you know, that there
were days when it was thought her brain was affected. I
think so too. Who can tell what point the love of women
of that temperament may reach One ? day, if they had not
taken a girl out of her hands, of whom she had become
jealous for some unknown reason,
she would have killed or
injured her severely. Right here, in front of the cafe, she
had seized her, in the presence of every one, and it was a
serious affair, I assure you. Nor was it the only one either.
No woman, in passing her officer's house, was allowed to
glance up at the window, or look at him in meeting him
in the street, without her threatening to do her some harm.
last the day for the change of the detachment arrived ;
the
officer promised that he would return in a few months, the
girl believed him, and he went away and was seen no more.
The poor thing fell ill.
Perhaps, in getting well and losing
that little ray of hope remaining, she might have forgotten
him ;
but before she had recovered from her illness, she
learned, I don't know how,
At
that her lover had married. The
blow was unexpected, and was terrible in its effect. She
became mad. That is the story."
" "
What followed ?
then returned, and it is now more than a year since she has
been here."
At that moment a soldier came to the door of the cafe in
search of the doctor.
"I '11 tell
you the rest later ;
au revoir" saying which he
disappeared. The officer, rising to. salute him, hit his sword