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

DEPARTURE AND RETURN. $17
I added. Then she said, in a tone even more affectionate than
"
mine : I ask it as a favor."
She knelt down and packed the things. The orderly looked
at me half touched, haft surprised, as if to say : " How fortunate
you are, lieutenant ! "
know it ;
I am sorry that your
I looked at him as if to reply
:
mother is not here."
My mother rose and went away.
I heard a heavy sigh,
turned, and saw my younger sister weeping.
My mother returned with something in her hands, placed
it in
the trunk, and went away again. I looked: it was her portrait.
She returned with three books, and put them on the portrait.
" What are those, mother ? "
" I
"
They are The Promessi Sposi."
1
"
Oh, thanks ! and I kissed her hand ;
she withdrew again
hastily always impassible. We all looked at her in astonishment,
and grew uneasy.
"Take off
your sash."
"
Why " ? I asked.
She removed it without saying a word, and put
it in the
trunk.
"Mother, I must wear it." She made no reply, but went
into another room. Another heavy sigh
:
my
elder sister was
crying.
My mother returned with a magnificent silk sash, it
put around
"
my neck, and said : I have made it
during the hours when
you were on the parade ground."
" Mother," I exclaimed, seizing her hand,
" this is too
much !
"
She turned her head away.
The orderly looked it her with glistening eyes.