The Inferno

s of light. An old man, with a care-worn, exhausted appearance and a face furrowed with wrinkles, seated in the armchair nea

conversing. The man had a cracked, uneven voice. A slight feverish tremour sometimes shook his shoulders, and now and then he gave a sudden involuntary jerk. The fire had died out of his eyes and his speech had traces of a foreign accent

er and sister? It was plain that he ad

looked at the reflection

e born, and some one is

he man's companion cried in a lo

ip, don't

had produced, as though her protest had

erious illness, which he did not bear well. He was in a constant state of irritation. He had not long to live. That was apparent from

.

the silence. As he was sitting between me and the open

, I think, also of his marri

passion enlivened his gestures and glances and warmed his language. You co

a little and I co

ome to this room to rest, between two stations, and he was resting uneasily, like an escaped convict. He said he would have to leave again, and his eyes spar

have seen, of all the

rever in flight, arrested for a moment in their insatiable course, in

.

rmo-S

elf with these recollections. I saw the effort he was maki

w over the whole country! The table, round and pale like a star. The stream sparkling. The banks bordered with oleander and tamarisk. The sun made a f

, placid, deep, and

was dreaming on a rustic seat, far enough away not to hear them. I saw the light-gree

Lombardy summer over the winding river which u

ture which represented a sunlight effect on a Roman landscape. The boy held his head stretched out. Amid the immobility of the indifferent attendants, and in the dampness and drabness

through it by chance in November. It was very col

we walked

or a moment

ain memories

e in his nervous

oh,

on of reviving them, "was the corner where the lindens and acacias were on your estate in the governme

a great cloak of shaggy cloth, and a felt cap pulled down over his ears.

that way and no other way? I do not know, but that is the

.

stand out in greater relief against the o

ains, his back bent, his head shaking as in

e drew a case of cigarettes from

features. But when he started to smoke in the twilight, all you could see was the

he was smoking. The odou

ward the closed window, modest

e foreground, the high priest, with his elaborate head-dress in tiers-a vague pagoda, architect

circle of the past,

useless. Travelling does not make us greater. Why

wed his wa

.

en in ecstasy now

keep remembering. My h

s, with a gesture of resignation, "w

with only her beauty. It was a superhuman vision that he evoked, heightened by regret, by

tes of divinity, because, for believers as well as for unbel

.

saw her go to the door, softly wi

ping reality. It seemed to live, to be firmly rooted, and to

," he said, and went on as if

rything ready fo

man instinctively, as if she

nna. He will not be frightened by a formality, pure and simple- by a marriag

ry, feverish. His words came from d

ade a visible effort to hold himself in, as if not daring

so much," he

wered, "you w

ied, "to have been willing t

clasping her hands and bending her magnificent bod

be frank and speak without reticence, without the shame and guilt of not knowing w

, though continuing to see her, then

angel who do

med me. It was the infiniteness of a heart p

ch in every little detail showed that she knew his love. She did not encourage him, or lie to him, but whenever she could, by a word, by

e the shadow drew him still nearer

d confidante of

n. Since all preparations had b

aste love that will be left to you

benefit for the vague future. For the present all he aspired to

ss because of her love for Michel, which the sick man had declared in her stead. While she had consented in principl

one contrary to her material interests, in all the purity of her soul

e!" he

uth, the mouth to which supplicati

ng that she was abou

so little time left, so little time that

and waited fo

y touched-hardly grazed-the

cal solemnity, of conscious grandeur in her gesture. Even though devoted and chaste, without any u

.

young woman's delivery, in a month or so. She expected to go to a hospital nearby. But the man was very ill, they said. Madame Lemercier was extremely annoyed. She was afraid he would die in her house. She had made arrangements by corr

hings, and he held his face bowed down, so that the light from the window did not reveal his pupils, but only the edge of the lower lids, which gave the impression of his eyes having been put out. I