trunk, and my winter boots, the leather shiny with oil, were on the trunk. My Austrian sniper's rifle with its blued octagon barrel and the lovely dark walnut, cheek-fitted, schutzen stock, hung over the two beds. The telescope that fitted it was, I remembered, locked in the trunk. The lieutenant, Rinaldi, lay asleep on the other bed. He woke when he heard me in the room and sat up.
“Ciaou!” he said. “What kind of time did you have?”
“Magnificent.”
We shook hands and he put his arm around my neck. and kissed me.
“Oughf,” I said.
“You’re dirty,” he said. You ought to wash. Where did you go and what did you do? Tell me everything at once.”
“I went everywhere. Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Villa San Giovanni, Messina, Taormina———”
“You talk like a time-table. Did you have any beautiful adventures?”
“Yes,”
“Where?”
“Milano, Firenze, Roma, Napoli———”
“That’s enough. Tell me really what was the best.”
“In Milano.”
“That was because it was first. Where did you meet her? In the Cova? Where did you go? How did you feel? Tell me everything at once. Did you stay all night?”
“Yes.”
“That’s nothing. Here now we have beautiful girls. New girls never been to the front before.”
“Wonderful.”
