»I thought we flew to Albuquerque.»
»That was another time.»
»Will we stop early in the afternoons at the best Motel in the A.A.A. book and I make you any drinks you want while you read the paper and Life and Time and Newsweek, and I will read the new fresh Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar?»
»Yes. But we come back here too.»
»Of course. With our car. On an Italian liner; whichever one is best then. We drive straight here from Geneva.»
»You don’t want to stop anywhere for the night?»
»Why? We want to get home to our own house.»
»Where will our house be?»
»We can decide that any time. There are always plenty of houses in this town. Would you like to live in the country too?»
»Yes,» the Colonel said. »Why not?»
»Then we could see the trees when we woke up. What sort of trees will we see on this journey?»
»Pine mostly, and cotton-wood along the creeks, and aspen. Wait till you see the aspen turn yellow in the fall.»
»I’m waiting. Where will we stay in Wyoming?»
»We’ll go to Sheridan first and then decide.»
»Is Sheridan nice?»
»It’s wonderful. In the car we’ll drive to where they had the Wagon-Box Fight and I’ll tell you about it. We will drive up, on the way to Billings, to where they killed that fool George Armstrong Custer, and you can see the markers where everybody died and I’ll explain the fight to you.»
»That will be wonderful. Which is Sheridan more like, Mantova or Verona or Vicenza?»
»It isn’t like any of those. It is right up against the mountains, almost like Schio.»
»Is it like Cortina then?»
»Nothing like. Cortina is in a high valley in the mountains. Sheridan lays right up against them. They aren’t any foot-hills to the Big Horns. They rise high out of the plateau. You can see Cloud’s Peak.»
»Will our cars climb them properly?»
»You’re damn right they will. But I would much rather not have any hydramatic drive.»
»I can do without it,» the girl said. Then she held her self straight and hard not to cry. »As I can do without everything else.»
»What are you drinking?» the Colonel said. »We haven’t even ordered yet.»
»I don’t think I will drink anything.»
»Two very dry Martinis,» the Colonel said to the bartender, »and a glass of cold water.»
He reached into his pocket and unscrewed the top of the medicine bottle, and shook two of the big tablets into his left hand. With them in his hand, he screwed the top back on the bottle. It was no feat for a man with a bad right hand.
»I said I didn’t want to drink anything.»
»I know daughter. But I thought you might need one. We can leave it on the bar. Or I can drink it myself. Please,» he said. »I did not mean to be brusque.»
»We haven’t asked for the little negro that will look after me.»
»No. Because I did not want to ask for him until Cipriani came in and I could pay for him.»
»Is everything that rigid?»
»With me, I guess,» the Colonel said. »I’m sorry daughter.»
»Say daughter three times straight.»
»Hija, figlia, Daughter.»
»I don’t know,» she said. »I think we should just leave here. I love to have people see us, but I don’t want to see anybody.»
»The box with the negro in it is on top of the cash register.»
»I know. I’ve seen it for sometime.»
The bar-tender came, with the two drinks, frost cold from the chilled coldness of the glasses, and he brought the glass of water.
»Give me that small packet that came in my name and is on top of the cash register,» the Colonel said to him. »Tell Cipriani I will send him a check for it.»
He had made another decision.
»Do you want your drink, daughter?»
»Yes. If you don’t mind me changing my mind too.»
They drank, after touching the glasses very lightly, so lightly that the contact was almost imperceptible.
»You were right,» she said feeling its warmth and its momentary destruction of sorrow.
»You were right too,» he said and palmed the two tablets.
He thought taking them with the water now was in bad taste. So, when the girl turned her head a moment to watch a morning drinker go out the door, he swallowed them with the Martini.
»Should we go, Daughter?»
»Yes. By all means.»
»Bar-tender,» the Colonel said. »How much are these drinks? And do not forget to tell Cipriani I am sending him a check for this nonsense.»
CHAPTER 38
THEY ate lunch at the Gritti, and the girl had unwrapped the small ebony negro’s head and torso, and pinned it high on her left shoulder. It was about three inches long, and was quite lovely to look at if you liked that sort of thing. And if you don’t you are stupid, the Colonel thought.
But do not even think rough, he told himself. You have to be good now in every way until you say goodbye. What a word, he thought, good-bye.
It sounds like a Valentine slogan.
Good-bye and bonne chance and hasta la vista. We always just said merde and let it go at that. Farewell, he thought, that is a nice word. It sings well, he thought. Farewell, a long farewell and take it with you where you go. With handles, he thought.
»Daughter,» he said. »How long has it been since I told you that I loved you?»
»Not since we sat at the table.»
»I tell you now.»
She had combed her hair with patience when they came into the hotel and she had gone into the room for women. She disliked such rooms.
She had used lipstick to make the sort of mouth she knew he most desired, and she had said to herself, making the mouth correctly, »Don’t think at all. Don’t think. Above all don’t be sad because he is going now.»
»You look beautiful.»
»Thank you. I would like to be beautiful for you if I could and if I could be beautiful.»
»Italian is a lovely language.»
»Yes. Mister Dante thought so.»
»Gran Maestro,» the Colonel said. »What is there to eat in this Wirtschaft?»
The Gran Maestro had been observing, without observing, with affection and without envy.
»Do you want meat, or fish?»
»It’s Saturday,» the Colonel said. »Fish is not compulsory. So I’ll take it.»
»It is sole,» the Gran Maestro said. »What do you want, my Lady?»
»Whatever you decide. You know more about food than I do, and I like it all.»
»Make a decision, Daughter.»
»No. I would rather leave it to some one who knows more than me. I have a boarding school appetite.»
»It will come as a surprise,» the Gran Maestro said with his long and loving face with the grey eyebrows over the softly hooded eyes, and the ever happy face of the old soldier who is still alive and appreciates it.
»Is there any news from the Order?» the Colonel asked.
»Only that our leader, Himself, is in trouble. They have confiscated everything he owns. Or at any rate they have intervened.»
»I hope it is not serious.»
»We will have confidence in our leader. He has ridden out worse tempests than this.»
»To our leader,» the Colonel said.
He raised his glass, which had been filled with the decanted new and true Valpolicella. »Drink to him, daughter.»
»I can’t drink to that swine,» the girl said. »Besides I do not belong to the Order.»
»You are a member now,» the Gran Maestro said. »Por merito di guerra.»
»I’ll drink to him then,» she said. »Am I really a member of the Order?»
»Yes,» the Gran Maestro said. »You have not received your parchment yet but I appoint you Super Honorary Secretary. My Colonel will reveal to you the secrets of the order. Reveal, please, my Colonel.»
»I reveal,» the Colonel said. »There are no pitted folk about?»
»No. He is out with his Lady. Miss Baedeker.»
»OK then,» the Colonel said. »I will reveal. There is only the major secret that you must know. Correct me, Gran Maestro, if I fall into error.»
»Proceed to reveal,» the Gran Maestro said.
»I proceed to reveal,» the Colonel said. »Listen carefully daughter. This is the Supreme Secret. Listen. ‘Love is love and fun is fun. But it is always so quiet when the gold fish die.»’
»It has been revealed,» the Gran Maestro said.
»I am very proud and happy to be a member of the Order,» the girl said. »But it is, in a way, a rather rough order.»
»It is indeed,» the Colonel said. »And now, Gran Maestro, what do we actually eat; without mysteries?»
»Some crab enchillada, in the style of this town, but cold, first. Served in the shell. Then sole for you, and for my lady a mixed grill. What vegetables?»
»Whatever you have,» the Colonel said.
The Gran Maestro was gone and the Colonel looked at the girl and then at the Grand Canal outside the window, and he saw the magic spots and changes of light that were even here, in the end of the bar, which had now by skillful handling been made into a dining room, and he said, »Did I tell you, daughter, that I love you?»
»You haven’t told me for quite a long time. But I love you.»
»What happens to people that love each other?»
»I suppose they have whatever they have, and they are more fortunate than others. Then one of them gets the emptiness forever.»
»I won’t be rough,» the Colonel said. »I could have made a rough response. But please don’t have any emptiness.»
»I’ll try,» the girl said. »I’ve been trying ever since I woke up. I’ve tried ever since we knew each other.»
»Keep on trying, daughter,» the Colonel said.
Then to the Gran Maestro, who had
