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

AT TWENTY. 289
he had good taste and aimed high at coats of arms. A
month after we were established there were two or three countesses
and three or four marchionesses of whom we could not
talk at table without a lack of delicacy toward him. And the
rascal probably did not know them by sight.
Every day a new
one was forthcoming.
" Did you see such and such a countess at the theatre last
evening ? " one of us would ask of his neighbor.
"
Yes, indeed ! A beautiful little woman, with that charming
little rose-colored bodice. I would give the half of my blood
to kiss the point
. . ."
" I beseech you," interrupted Boccetti, becoming suddenly
quite serious, "let us change the topic."
" "
Come now, is the veto on this one too ?
" I beg you to desist, out of regard for me."
"
Well, then, let 's
change the subject." But there were quiet
laughs
which were worth a hundred loud ones. That idiot
of a Boccetti'used to rub his back against the wall at the housedoor
before coming in,
in order to make us believe that he had
whitened himself in squeezing some lady of high degree on the
staircase of a palace, where she had gone to call
upon a friend;
and while he was dining, he would jump up from table and rush
to the window at the sound of a carriage
we declared,
only to expectorate,
and then return to his place with a smile full of
condescension, as he stroked his moustache.
His neighbor at table had another passion that of playing
the Grand Seigneur. He was born for this r61e, and it fired all
his blood. He was empty as air, and not being able to squander
in any other way, he did what he could. He lighted his
cigar with four matches at a time, the kind which cost four