LOVE OF LOVERS

At a small station between Rome and Genoa the guard opened the door of our compartment and, with the assistance of a dirty oiler, led, carried almost, a little, one-eyed, old man up the steps into our midst.

“Very old!” remarked both at the same time, smiling good-naturedly.

But the old man turned out to be very vigorous. After thanking his helpers with a pretty gesture of his wrinkled hand he politely and gaily lifted his shabby dust-stained hat from his grey head, and, looking sharply at the seats with his one eye, inquired:

“Will you permit me?”

He was given a seat at once. He then straightened his blue linen suit, heaved a sigh of relief and, putting his hands on his little, withered knees, smiled good-humouredly, disclosing a toothless mouth.

“Going far, uncle?” asked my companion.

“Only three stations!” he replied readily. “I am going to my grandson’s wedding.”

After a few minutes he became very talkative and, raising his voice above the noise made by the wheels of the train, told us as he swayed this way and that like a broken branch on a windy day:

“I am a Ligurian: we Ligurians are a strong people. I, for instance, have thirteen sons and four daughters; I confuse my grandchildren in counting them; this is the second one to get married—that’s pretty good, don’t you think?”

He looked proudly round the compartment with his lustreless but still merry eye; then he laughed quietly and said: “See how many people I have given to my country and to the king!”

“How did I lose my eye? Oh, that was long ago, when I was still a boy, but already helping my father. He was breaking stones in the vineyard; our soil is very hard, and needs a lot of attention: there are a great many stones. A stone flew from underneath my father’s pick and hit me in the eye. I don’t remember any pain, but at dinner my eye came out—it was terrible, signors! They put it back in its place and applied some warm bread, but the eye died!”

The old man rubbed his brown skinny cheek, and laughed again in a merry, good-humoured way.

“At that time there were not so many doctors, and people were much more stupid. What! you think they may have been kinder? Perhaps they were.”

And now this dried-up, one-eyed, deeply wrinkled face, with its partial covering of greenish-grey, mouldy-looking hair, became knowing and triumphant.

“When one has lived as long as I one may talk confidently about men, isn’t that so?”

He raised significantly a dark, crooked finger as though threatening someone.

“I will tell you, signors, something about people.

“When my father died—I was thirteen at the time—you see how small I am even now: but I was very skilful and could work without getting tired (that is all I inherited from my father)—our house and land were sold for debts. And so, with but one eye and two hands, I lived on, working wherever I could get work. It was hard, but youth is not afraid of work, is it?

“When I was nineteen I met a girl whom Fate had meant me to love; she was as poor as myself, though stronger and more robust; she, also, lived with her mother, an old woman in failing health, and worked when and where she could. She was not very comely, but kind and clever. And she had a fine voice—oh! she sang like a professional, and that in itself means riches, signors!

“‘Shall we get married?’ said I, after we had known each other for some time.

“‘It would be funny, you one-eyed fellow!’ she replied rather sadly. ‘Neither you nor I have anything. What should we live on?’

“Upon my soul, neither I nor she had anything! But what does that signify to young love? You all know, signors, how little love requires; I was insistent and got my way.

“‘Yes, perhaps you are right,’ said Ida at last. ‘If the Holy Mother helps you and me now when we live apart, it will be much easier for her to help us when we live together.’

“We decided upon it and went to the priest.

“‘This is madness!’ said the priest. ‘Aren’t there beggars enough in Liguria? Unhappy people, playthings of the devil, you must struggle against his snares or you will pay dearly for your weakness.’

“All the youths in the commune jeered at us, and all the old people shook their heads, I can tell you. But youth is obstinate and will have its way! The wedding day drew near; we were no better off than we had been before; we really did not know where we should sleep on our wedding night.

“‘Let us go into the fields,’ said Ida. ‘Why won’t that do? The Mother of God is equally kind to all, and love is everywhere equally passionate when people are young.’

“That is what we decided upon: that the earth should be our bed and the sky our coverlet!

“At this point another story begins, signors; please pay attention; this is the best story of my long life. Early in the morning of the day before our wedding the old man Giovanni, for whom I worked, said to me like this, his pipe between his teeth, as if he were speaking about trifles:

“’Ugo, you had better go and clean out the old sheep-shed and put some straw in it. Although it is dry there, and no sheep have been in it for over a year, it ought to be cleaned out properly if you want to live in it with Ida.’

“Thus we had a house!

“As I worked and sang, the carpenter Constanzio stood in the door and asked:

“‘Are you going to live here with Ida? Where is your bed? You must come to me when you have finished and get one from me—I have one to spare.’

“As I went to his house Mary, the bad-tempered shopkeeper, shouted:

“‘The wretched sillies get married and don’t possess a sheet, or pillow, or anything else! You are quite crazy, you one-eyed fellow! Send your sweetheart to me.’

“And Ettore Viano, tortured by rheumatism and fever, shouted from the threshold of his house:

“‘Ask him whether he has saved up much wine for the guests! Oh, good people, who could be more light-headed than these two?’”

In a deep wrinkle on the old man’s cheek glistened a tear of happiness; he threw back his head and laughed noiselessly, pawing his old throat and the flabby skin of his face; his arms were as restless as a child’s.

“Oh, signors, signors!” said he, laughing and catching his breath. “On our wedding morn we had everything that was wanted for a home—a statue of the Madonna, crockery, linen, furniture—everything, I swear! Ida wept and laughed, and so did I, and everybody laughed—it is not the thing to weep on one’s wedding day, and they all laughed at us!

“Signors, words cannot tell how sweet it is to be able to say ‘our’ people. It is better still to feel that they are ‘yours,’ near and dear to you, your kindred, for whom your life is no joking matter, your happiness no plaything! And the wedding took place! It was a great day. The whole commune turned out to see us, and everybody came to our shed, which had become a rich house, as in a fairy-tale. We had everything: wine and fruit, meat and bread, and all ate and were merry. There is no greater happiness, signors, than to do good to others; believe me, there is nothing more beautiful or more joyful.

“And we had a priest. ‘These people,’ he said gravely, and in a manner suited to the occasion, ‘have worked for you all, and now you have provided for them so that they may be happy on this the best day of their life. That is exactly what you should have done, for they have worked for you, and work is of more account than copper and silver coins; work is always greater than the payment that is given for it! Money disappears, but work remains. These people are happy and humble; their life has been hard but they have not grumbled; it may be harder yet and they will not murmur—and you will help them in an hour of need. Their hands are willing and their hearts as good as gold.’ He said a lot of flattering things to me, to Ida and to the whole commune!”

The old man looked triumphantly, with his one eye, at his fellow-travellers, and there was something youthful and vigorous in his glance as he said:

“There you have something about people, signors. Curious, isn’t it?”