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

1
56 MILITAR Y LIFE.
against the table. At that moment a voice was heard crying
out in the " "
square I heard : it, I heard it ! He is there !
And at the same time the mad girl appeared on the door-sill.
" Send her away ! " cried the officer, bounding quickly to
his feet, as if started up by a spring.
The girl was sent off.
" "
I will go and wait for him at home !
they heard her say
"
as she moved away ; I will go and wait for him at home, my
"
dear little officer !
Among the many persons present was one who, noticing that
impetuous movement and his changed face, whispered to his
" "
neighbors Can the lieutenant have been afraid : ?
IV.
Carmela's mother lived in a wretched house at the end of
the town, together with two or three families of peasants, and
earned a precarious livelihood by sewing on linen. At first
she received assistance, from time to time, from the well-to-do
families of the place ; but, finally, nothing more. Her benefactors
had seen that their contributions were made in vain,
for the girl would neither eat nor sleep at home, nor was there
any way of making her keep a dress in order for a week.
There is no need to tell how much the mother suffered, or how
she tried with untiring patience to do something for her
daughter each day but
; always in vain. Sometimes, after
many prayers, she would allow a new dress to be put on, and
then suddenly would tear, cut, and reduce it to rags. At
others, hardly had she left her mother's hands, nicely dressed
and cared for, when she would dash her hands through her
hair and in a moment loosen and rumple
it like a fury.
She spent a great portion of the day in wandering among the