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

234 MILITARY LIFE.
does not stop, although the strange fears of the common people
and children do not pass through his mind, but goes
straight on, turning his face in the opposite direction. In going
by the solitary chapels in the country, the children are almost
frightened by the sound of their own steps, which, entering by
the windows, resounds under the dark vault. At that hour,
and until a ray of light is to be seen in the west, the families
of the people at the villas live on the terraces, leaning over
the railings to contemplate in silence that sad spectacle :
nightfall in the country. The boys point out with their little
fingers the small lights that appear one by one in the countryhouses,
or ask papa the names of the stars, and if there are
people like us in them. The girls, sitting apart, with one arm
on the back of the chair and their heads resting on their arms,
fix their eyes dreamily on the distant mountains and are soon
lost in thought. But they are not thinking of those mountains.
At such times their thoughts withdraw wearily from
that silence and solitude ; although they are in the midst of
their family, they feel quite alone and abandoned. They feel
that some great good is lacking,
that there is a void in their
hearts, that their life is not complete ;
and their fancy runs
irresistibly on to the city, loses itself in the joyous
tumult of
balls, seeks and finds again the dear faces forgotten
for so
long a time, enjoys reviving those imageries, in presenting itself
upon the spot, and sharing with them that sweet melancholy.
They count the time they shall still have to pass at
the villa, run over that time in their mind, and enjoy, in anticipation,
the pleasures of return and the first sight of those
dear faces, waking finally
from those sad and lovely fancies
as they would from a dream.