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

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MILITARY LIFE.
hand, in order to show her, that it was best to desist once for
all. And she had desisted, not ceasing, however, to keep behind
him every time that she met him in the street, and to pass
many hours of the evening seated on the steps of his house.
Whether he entered or went out, she never said a word to him,
nor moved from the spot. And she conducted herself in the
same way with two or three other officers who came after him,
and who differed little from him in manners, customs, or appearances.
But some young and very handsome ones arrived, and
one might say that she went mad about them, if that had not been
her state already. Some of them took it into their head that
they could cure her by pretending
with her ;
to be charmed and in love
but having taken the thing up too lightly, they were
wearied after two or three days' trial, and had abandoned their
project. Some others, less philanthropic and more material,
"
had asked themselves : Is it
always necessary that a beautiful
girl should be perfectly sane ? " and having replied in the negative,
had tried to persuade Carmela that brains were a superfluity
in love-making ; but, strange to say, they had met with an unexpected
and obstinate resistance. She never said a positive and
resolute no, because, perhaps, she did not clearly understand what
they wanted of her ;
but, almost by instinct, at every attitude or
act (who can suggest an adjective?) which might seem decisive,
she would loosen one hand after the other, draw back her arms,
cross them on her breast, and clasp herself tightly, giving a
certain strange laugh, like children when they think
some one
intends to play them a trick, but they do not know what, and,
by laughing, wish to show that they have understood it in order
to have it
explained. At those moments when her face became
animated and her eyes sparkled, she no longer seemed mad,