Then, as he climbed, he felt the twinges, and coming down the other side, he saw two lovely looking girls. They were beautiful and hatless and poorly but chicly dressed, and they were talking very fast to each other and the wind was blowing their hair as they climbed with their long, easy striding Venetian legs and the Colonel said to himself, I’d better quit window gazing along this street and make that next bridge, and two squares afterwards you turn due right and keep along it till you are in Harry’s.
He did just that, twinging on the bridge, but walking with his same old stride and only seeing, quickly, the people that he passed. There’s a lot of oxygen in this air, he thought, as he faced into the wind and breathed deeply.
Then he was pulling open the door of Harry’s bar and was inside and he had made it again, and was at home.
At the bar a tall, very tall, man, with a ravaged face of great breeding, merry blue eyes, and the long, loose-coupled body of a buffalo wolf, said, »My ancient and depraved Colonel.»
»My wicked Andrea.»
They embraced and the Colonel felt the rough texture of Andrea’s handsome tweed coat that must have been entering, at least, its twentieth year.
»You look well, Andrea,» the Colonel said.
It was a lie and they both knew it.
»I am,» said Andrea, returning the lie. »I must say I never felt better. You look extraordinarily well, yourself.»
»Thank you, Andrea. Us healthy bastards shall inherit the earth.»
»Very good idea. I must say I wouldn’t mind inheriting something these days.»
»You have no kick. You’ll inherit well over six feet four of it.»
»Six feet six,» said Andrea. »You wicked old man. Are you still slaving away at la vie militaire?»
»I don’t slave too hard at it,» the Colonel said. »I’m down to shoot at San Relajo.»
»I know. But don’t make jokes in Spanish at this hour. Alvarito was looking for you. He said to tell you he’d be back.»
»Good. Is your lovely wife and are the children well?»
»Absolutely, and they asked me to remember them to you if I saw you. They’re down in Rome. There comes your girl. Or one of your girls.» He was so tall he could see into the now almost dark street, but this was a girl you could recognize if it was much darker than it was at this hour.
»Ask her to have a drink with us here before you carry her off to that corner table. Isn’t she a lovely girl?»
»She is.»
Then she came into the room, shining in her youth and tall striding beauty, and the carelessness the wind had made of her hair. She had pale, almost olive colored skin, a profile that could break your, or any one else’s heart, and her dark hair, of an alive texture, hung down over her shoulders.
»Hello, my great beauty,» the Colonel said.
»Oh, oh, hello,» she said. »I thought I would miss you. I am so sorry to be late.»
Her voice was low and delicate and she spoke English with caution.
»Ciao, Andrea,» she said. »How is Emily and are the children?»
»Probably just the same as when I answered that same question for you at noon.»
»I am so sorry,» she said and blushed. »I am so excited and I always say the wrong things. What should I say? Have you had a good time here all afternoon?»
»Yes,» said Andrea. »With my old friend and severest critic.»
»Who is that?»
»Scotch whisky and water.»
»I suppose if he must tease me he must,» she said to the Colonel. »But you won’t tease me, will you?»
»Take him over to that corner table and talk to him. I’m tired of you both.»
»I’m not tired of you,» the Colonel told him. »But I think it is a good idea. Should we have a drink sitting down, Renata?»
»I’d love to if Andrea isn’t angry.»
»I’m never angry.»
»Would you have a drink with us, Andrea?»
»No,» said Andrea. »Get along to your table. I’m sick of seeing it unoccupied.»
»Good-bye, Caro. Thanks for the drink we didn’t have.»
»Ciao, Ricardo,» Andrea said and that was all.
He turned his fine, long, tall back on them and looked into the mirror that is placed behind bars so a man can tell when he is drinking too much, and decided that he did not like what he saw there. »Ettore,» he said. »Please put this nonsense on my bill.»
He walked out after waiting carefully for his coat, swinging into it, and tipping the man who brought it exactly what he should be tipped plus twenty per cent.
At the corner table, Renata said, »Do you think we hurt his feelings?»
»No. He loves you and he likes me.»
»Andrea is so nice. And you’re so nice.»
»Waiter,» the Colonel called; then asked, »Do you want a dry Martini, too?»
»Yes,» she said. »I’d love one.»
»Two very dry Martinis,» the Colonel said. »Montgomerys. Fifteen to one.»
The waiter, who had been in the desert, smiled and was gone, and the Colonel turned to Renata.
»You’re nice,» he said. »You’re also very beautiful and lovely and I love you.»
»You always say that and I don’t know what it means but I like to hear it.»
»How old are you now?»
»Nearly nineteen. Why?»
»And you don’t know what it means?»
»No. Why should I? Americans always say it to you before they go away. It seems to be necessary to them. But I love you very much, too, whatever that is.»
»Let’s have a fine time,» the Colonel said. »Let’s not think about anything at all.»
»I would like that. I cannot think very well this time of day at any rate.»
»Here are the drinks,» the Colonel said. »Remember not to say, chin-chin.»
»I remember that from before. I never say chin-chin, nor here’s to you, nor bottom’s up.»
»We just raise the glass to each other and, if you wish, we can touch the edges.»
»I wish,» she said.
The Martinis were icy cold and true Montgomerys, and, after touching the edges, they felt them glow happily all through their upper bodies.
»And what have you been doing?» the Colonel asked.
»Nothing. I still wait to go away to school.»
»Where now?»
»God knows. Wherever I go to learn English.»
»Turn your head and raise your chin once for me.»
»You’re not making fun?»
»No. I’m not making fun.»
She turned her head and raised her chin, without vanity, nor coquetry, and the Colonel felt his heart turn over inside him, as though some sleeping animal had rolled over in its burrow and frightened, deliciously, the other animal sleeping close beside.
»Oh you,» he said. »Would you ever like to run for Queen of Heaven?»
»That would be sacrilegious.»
»Yes,» he said. »I suppose it would and I withdraw the suggestion.»
»Richard,» she said. »No I can’t say it.»
»Say it.»
»No.»
The Colonel thought, I order you to say it. And she said, »Please never look at me like that.»
»I’m sorry,» the Colonel said. »I had just slipped into my trade unconsciously.»
»And if we were such a thing as married would you practice your trade in the home?»
»No. I swear it. I never have. Not in my heart.»
»With no one?»
»With no one of your sex.»
»I don’t like that word your sex. It sounds as though you were practicing your trade.»
»I throw my trade out of that God-damn window into the Grand Canal.»
»There,» she said. »You see how quickly you practice it?»
»All right,» he said. »I love you and my trade can gently leave.»
»Let me feel your hand,» she said. »It’s all right. You can put it on the table.»
»Thank you,» the Colonel said.
»Please don’t,» she said. »I wanted to feel it because all last week, every night, or I think nearly every night, I dreamed about it, and it was a strange mixed-up dream and I dreamed it was the hand of Our Lord.»
»That’s bad. You oughtn’t to do that.»
»I know it. That’s just what I dreamed.»
»You aren’t on the junk, are you?»
»I don’t know what you mean, and please don’t make fun when I tell you something true. I dreamed just as I say.»
»What did the hand do?»
»Nothing. Or maybe that is not true. Mostly it was just a hand.»
»Like this one?» The Colonel asked, looking at the misshapen hand with distaste, and remembering the two times that had made it that way.
»Not like. It was that one. May I touch it carefully with my fingers if it does not hurt?»
»It does not hurt. Where it hurts is in the head, the legs and the feet. I don’t believe there’s any sensation in that hand.»
»You’re wrong,» she said. »Richard. There is very much sensation in that hand.»
»I don’t like to look at it much. You don’t think we could skip it.»
»Of course. But you don’t have to dream about it.»
»No. I have other dreams.»
»Yes. I can imagine. But I dream lately about this hand. Now that I have touched it carefully, we can talk about funny things if you like. What is there funny we should talk about?»
»Let’s look at the people and discuss them.»
»That’s lovely,» she said. »And we won’t do it with malice. Only with our best wit. Yours and mine.»
»Good,» the Colonel said. »Waiter, Ancora due Martini.»
He did not like to call for Montgomerys in a tone that could be overheard because there were two obvious Britishers at the next table.
The male might have been wounded, the Colonel thought, although, from his looks, it seems unlikely. But God help me to avoid brutality. And look at Renata’s eyes, he thought. They are probably the most beautiful of all the beautiful things she has, with the longest
