The Games of Life 1732 Studios

Italian · The Games of Life

Il fermaglio

The Clasp

277 sentences · 14 notes

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  1. 1

    Francesco was working under the portico when Speranza, nicknamed Disperazione, arrived with an interesting piece of news.

    FrancescoFrancescoFrancesco · proper nounsubject of lavorava
    lavoravawas workinglavorare · verb, imperfect, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
    sottoundersotto · prepositionpreposition marking portico
    iltheil · determiner, masculine, singulardeterminer of portico
    porticoporticoportico · noun, masculine, singularoblique complement of lavorava
    quandowhenquando · subordinating conjunctionintroduces the clause of giunse
    SperanzaSperanzaSperanza · proper nounsubject of giunse
    soprannominatanicknamedsoprannominare · verb, past, participle, feminine, singularmodifies Speranza
    DisperazioneDisperazioneDisperazione · proper noundirect object of soprannominata
    giunsearrivedgiungere · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularadverbial clause on lavorava
    conwithcon · prepositionpreposition marking notizia
    unaauno · determiner, feminine, singulardeterminer of notizia
    notiziapiece of newsnotizia · noun, feminine, singularoblique complement of giunse
    interessanteinterestinginteressante · adjective, singularmodifies notizia
  2. 2

    "I saw your sweetheart."

  3. 3

    But the young man, almost buried in a heap of broom-straw, went on stitching the broom he held in his hands, and did not even answer.

  4. An intense silence, the silence of the blazing middays of the Po lowlands, wrapped the house of the wealthy Magrini family, rising out of a field of ripe maize.

  5. Of the twenty people who lived there, only the old paralyzed grandmother, blind and deaf, Francesco the farmhand, and Disperazione, just back from one of her usual rambles, remained in the house at that hour.

  6. 4

    A fierce hunger made the little girl like a starving cat; so, unmoved by Francesco's silence, she darted into the great empty kitchen and began to rummage.

  7. 5

    "Nothing; nothing; of course, those wretches never leave me anything!" she cried; but she must have found something after all, because a moment later Francesco no longer heard the noise of drawers opened and the cupboard banged.

  8. Silence.

  9. Only in the distance, beyond the hedge that closed off the bright background of the field, a guinea-fowl scattered out its chattering call.

  10. 6

    Francesco stitched and stitched, twisting a green cord together with a red one.

  11. The earthy color of his face and his rust-colored hair blurred into the color of the broom-straw.

  12. So he dreamed, in the silence of the hour: he saw again a boat crossing the shining water of the river; and in the boat a small woman with black hair, a white face and a red mouth, going away, far, far away.

  13. She, however, was to return.

  14. She, however, had not come back again….

  15. 7

    In the next room a hoarse, labored cough sounded, like that of a little dog with a cold: it was the old grandmother waking.

  16. 8

    "Eh, Speranza?"

  17. 9

    No answer.

  18. 10

    "Speranza, Grandmother wants you," Francesco called out.

  19. 11

    No answer.

  20. 12

    "Speranza? Disperazione? Ow, ow, ow, God curse you.... You leave me all alone like a dog."

  21. 13

    "Disperazione?" Francesco shouted. "If you don't come out, I'll come and pull you by the hair."

  22. 14

    Then the dark little face, with eyes bigger than its mouth, appeared in the kitchen doorway; the whole cast of the child's features showed a strange satiety, a kind of nausea.

  23. 15

    "You've eaten the butter, I'll bet," said Francesco, menacingly.

  24. 16

    "You're a servant," the little girl insulted him. "Shut up."

  25. 17

    "And what are you? Taken in out of charity, that's what. Just try being good for once!" Francesco shouted, seeing the little one grow wild, ready to fling herself at him and scratch him.

  26. He too let the broom slide between his open legs, and put himself on guard, ready to defend himself — or, if need be, to attack.

  27. But the fight never took place because the grandmother called out again, moaning and cursing.

  28. Disperazione softened, slipped along the wall, through the heaps of pale broom-straw cluttering the portico, and went into the room.

  29. Francesco went back to his work, and since the child, half spiteful, half caressing, spoke loudly to make herself heard by the old woman, he overheard what she said.

  30. 18

    "I was on the embankment, watching the Stefanini children bathing.

  31. Ooh, how skinny they are!

  32. One nearly went under.

  33. Then, look, a little cart went by.

  34. Do you know who was in the cart?

  35. 19

    "What have you got in your hand, my darling?" the grandmother broke in. "What a smell of tobacco!"

  36. 20

    "Yes, it's tobacco; have some," the child offered, quite seriously.

  37. 21

    "Who gave it to you?"

  38. 22

    Disperazione, perhaps not knowing, or not wanting to explain, where the tobacco had come from, went back to her story about the cart.

  39. 23

    "It went along ever so slowly; there was a bag inside it, like the parish priest's.

  40. Of course — it was coming from Milan.

  41. 24

    "How do you know it was coming from Milan?"

  42. 25

    "Well, Eva was there, Francesco's sweetheart, in a fine red dress with a chain and a red fan....

  43. a great big fan, red as fire....

  44. She's fat now, Eva is….

  45. 26

    Francesco did not hear what the grandmother said; he heard nothing more at all.

  46. A red flame, like the glow of the fan Speranza had described, brushed his face and burned his eyes.

  47. The broom with its red and green cords slid once more between the young man's thin legs, and for long minutes he did not pick it up again.

  48. 27

    Eva had come back!

  49. She had come back on a little cart, dressed in red, "with a big, big red fan, with the chain."

  50. She had left by boat, in a faded, sallow little dress, pale, thin, all white — Francesco remembered it as if it were yesterday — and now she came back dressed in red, with the fan, fat, and no doubt red in the face too.

  51. Ah, the shameless woman!

  52. Why was she coming back?

  53. Yes, he knew why.

  54. She was now living with a pharmacist; she had grown tired of sewing quilts at the Bocconi Brothers' and had traded the sallow little dress for the red one….

  55. One of Francesco's masters, who often went to Milan, had seen her at the theater too, and also at the ball-game; once with one man, the second time with another.

  56. She was enjoying herself, growing plump, had fans with chains….

  57. 28

    Almost without realizing it, Francesco leapt to his feet, fists clenched: his small green eyes, sunk between his enormous forehead and jutting cheekbones, shone with tears and anger.

  58. But at once he seemed to sink back into his usual sick man's resignation.

  59. He sat down, sinking again among the reddish broom-straw, but he could not go back to his work.

  60. His sick heart pounded and pounded, and with every breath he felt a stab: it seemed to him that inside his chest a little serpent had woken, stinging and biting the poor heart it lay coiled beside.

  61. 29

    Speranza reappeared, a red bowl hanging from the forefinger of her right hand, hidden behind her back, and passed by silently, with her kitten's gait, heading for the cellar.

  62. 30

    "Speranza," Francesco called.

  63. But the little girl did not answer, and he judged it wiser to wait, so as not to irritate her.

  64. 31

    He waited a few minutes.

  65. Speranza reappeared, the bowl full of wine, and tried to pass unnoticed, turning her back on Francesco; he noticed the maneuver perfectly well, but still said nothing.

  66. 32

    Silence again.

  67. Then Francesco heard the old grandmother drinking the wine with a grumble of pleasure, and Speranza cautiously rummaging about the room.

  68. 33

    "Speranza?" he called.

  69. 34

    As usual, no answer.

  70. He waited a little longer, seized suddenly by a nervous tremor.

  71. 35

    "I want.... I want to know...." he said to himself, getting up.

  72. He went up to the doorway and saw Speranza climbed up, almost hanging from the back of a chair, in front of a little holy-water font.

  73. The grandmother, her great pink face veined with red and violet, dozed in her small, faintly foul-smelling bed: an indescribable disorder reigned in the room; the drawers of the dresser were all open.

  74. 36

    From the doorway Francesco saw his own face reflected in the mirror above the dresser, and felt a great sadness.

  75. Ah, how ugly he had become!

  76. Eva, seeing him, would not even have recognized him.

  77. Almost without realizing it he stepped into the room, and went to look at himself in the mirror, leaning over the open drawer.

  78. 37

    Speranza trembled, frightened, and flew down off the chair: a butterfly could not have done it more lightly or more silently.

  79. But at once, seeing Francesco intent on looking at himself, she was reassured and placed herself behind the young man.

  80. 38

    The slightly tilted mirror reflected the two figures, so different from each other: Francesco, thin, earth-colored, with hair like red broom-straw and small greenish glassy eyes, his cheeks hollow and his mouth still small and childlike, livid with sickness; Disperazione, dark, like a little black kitten with a white muzzle, with big languid eyes and cropped hair, black and shining.

  81. 39

    "What are you doing?" she said, seeing the other lingering there, "why are you crying?"

  82. 40

    Francesco then realized he was crying, and shook his head: a tear brushed his tightened chin and fell onto one of the countless objects cluttering the drawer.

  83. He looked, and saw his tear on a gold clasp, formed by a coiled little serpent biting a small ruby, just as the little serpent he carried in his chest bit at his heart.

  84. 41

    *

  85. 42

    Eight days later.

  86. Same hour, same scene.

  87. 43

    The same silence lay around the house, whose inhabitants — servants, masters and mistresses, save for Speranza, the blind old woman, and Francesco — were scattered here and there, some in the fields, some at neighboring houses, and some on the road with goods to sell.

  88. 44

    The Magrini were quite well-off, and they worked too; two were merchants, one traveled about trading grain, broom-straw, brooms; but all of them, men and women, the grandmother included, all of them drank, stole from one another in the house, and cheerfully ruined each other in turn.

  89. Good-hearted people, but violent and reckless, the Magrini did good turns for everyone and quarreled with everyone.

  90. They kept Disperazione, a poor orphan relative of theirs, in the house, but let her lead an almost wild life, and beat her regularly whenever one of them found her nearby.

  91. 45

    Francesco too was a bit of a relation of theirs, and they kept him more out of charity than anything else, since the heart trouble that was undermining him, especially since Eva's desertion, did not allow him to do heavy work.

  92. By now he was as weak as a little woman; and, like a woman, he was fit for nothing but stitching brooms, drawing water, and keeping an eye on the house.

  93. Sometimes he saw to the housework, when the women, with the men away, slipped off here and there to gossip with the neighbors.

  94. 46

    The guinea-fowl — the same one as the other day — called behind the hedge; Speranza rummaged desperately about the house, looking for something to eat, and the grandmother called in vain.

  95. 47

    Francesco, more earth-colored and uglier than ever, sewed on, crossing the red and green cords, but every so often fell into a trance, remembering and waiting.

  96. A somber ardor shone in his eyes.

  97. He had seen Eva again, or rather he had seen a woman who once was called Eva, back when she was slender and gentle and all in white in the pale little dress faded from wear.

  98. Now everything about her had changed: even her accent.

  99. Her look and her smile, once tremulous and sweet like the river's water rippled by the morning wind, now stirred a strange feeling in whoever they were turned toward.

  100. Francesco, meeting that look and that smile, had felt a flame run through his blood; his eyes had misted over; someone had shoved him furiously by the shoulders, throwing him close to Eva, arms open, trembling with the desire to embrace, clasp, smother the beautiful body of that woman dressed in red.

  101. She had pushed him back, but without taking offense, without ceasing to smile, without lowering her bright eyes.

  102. 48

    That night Francesco dreamed he was on the bank of the Po: the water was all a violent red, and great black barges, laden with worm-eaten wood, moved slowly down the river.

  103. Francesco waited, sitting inside an old boat almost wedged into the sand.

  104. That boat belonged, or had belonged, to an old ferryman who had disappeared about three months before; no one had seen him since; no one knew whether he was dead or alive, and meanwhile no one, since he had no relatives, dared touch the boat that the sand was slowly swallowing.

  105. On that boat Eva had gone away; and often Francesco went to sit inside it, on the plank that was slowly rotting away, and stayed for hours and hours watching the flowing water.

  106. 49

    In his dream, then, he waited, waited for that woman dressed in red, who had promised to come: the sharp desire to see her, the fear that she would not come, and a vague, mysterious anguish made his heart pound and ache.

  107. 50

    The black barges keep moving down, on the water all blood-red: an intense, sultry heat cuts off Francesco's breath.

  108. And now the passing of a person stirs the whitish bushes on the bank; someone runs among the willows and the young poplars, and the rustle of leaves whispers like a breath of wind in the sultry, luminous silence.

  109. Who is it?

  110. Is it her?

  111. Someone appears…. but it is not her; it is Disperazione, barefoot, with an enormous straw hat with its brim turned back: her face, neck, and part of her chest are hidden; only her legs can be seen, red from the heat and scratched by the bushes, and her waist bound by an elastic belt that Francesco has already seen on Eva.

  112. On the belt shines the gold clasp, with the ruby, the very one on which the young man's tear had fallen.

  113. A furious irritation seizes Francesco; what has the little imp come there to do?

  114. To spy?

  115. Just wait, though!

  116. He gets up, leaps onto the sand, runs after the big hat: the big hat flees, vanishes and reappears and seems to skip among the bushes.

  117. Francesco runs, but suddenly his feet sink into the sand and he can no longer move.

  118. The sand slowly swallows him, covering his feet, his legs, his waist, his chest….

  119. Then he, mad with terror, screams, calling out for Disperazione.

  120. 51

    One of his masters heard him scream and called out to him.

  121. He woke up, and waking, it seemed to him he saw beside him the little girl with the big hat and the clasp; but under the turned-back brim there was, instead of Speranza's head, the face, the provoking eyes, the voluptuous smile of Eva.

  122. 52

    His heart pounded all night long, and it was during those sleepless hours that he conceived the idea of offering the girl a gift, since she had told several girls that her sweetheart from Milan had given her so many beautiful things.

  123. 53

    "I'll give you a present," he told her as soon as he saw her again, "I'll give you something more beautiful and more precious than all the trinkets the other one gave you….

  124. A gold object….

  125. You don't believe me!" he exclaimed, seeing her smile.

  126. "You think I couldn't have a gold object?

  127. It's the only thing I have; it was my mother's."

  128. 54

    Eva smiled again: she did not ask him why he had not spoken of it before, why he had not given her that gold object before: what use would such a question have been?

  129. The past was so far away!

  130. She looked at Francesco, and seeing him so sallow, so thin, his bony face already looking like the face of a skeleton, she thought:

  131. 55

    "He'll die soon; it's better that he give the ring (she imagined it must be a ring) to me.

  132. After all, who else would he leave it to?"

  133. 56

    And she smiled at him, and he, once again, driven by an irresistible force, opened his arms to embrace her who was no longer his shy little Eva; but she pushed him back, without taking offense, without ceasing to smile.

  134. 57

    "Give me that object, then," she told him.

  135. "Give it to me before I leave."

  136. Then….

  137. 58

    "Where? Here?"

  138. 59

    "No: I'll tell you where. I'll come to the Magrini's tomorrow, and if I see you, I'll tell you where we can meet."

  139. 60

    *

  140. 61

    Now he waited, in the portico cluttered with broom-straw.

  141. He felt the same suffocating restlessness he had felt in the dream, when he had seemed to be waiting for Eva sitting on the plank of the abandoned boat.

  142. Would she come?

  143. Where would she tell him to go?

  144. Where?

  145. The place of the meeting worried him strangely; he tried to think only of that, perhaps also to escape the thought of what was to happen, because that thought tore at his heart.

  146. And yet his whole life now, all the little life left to him, was concentrated in the anguished desire for the moment of pleasure promised by Eva's smile.

  147. He did not deceive himself much; he felt, he knew, that she would have promised him nothing without hope of the gift; she would sell herself to him, as to anyone else; but it was exactly this certainty that made him die of grief.

  148. 62

    *

  149. 63

    When, however, he saw her arrive, in the silence of midday, her face burning like a red rose, Francesco felt almost ashamed of his hopes.

  150. It was not possible.

  151. She looked like a lady, with her little red parasol, her necklace of yellow pearls and her petticoats trimmed with lace.

  152. 64

    He let the broom fall, ashamed that Eva should have found him stitching the humble tool, and got up very slowly.

  153. 65

    She stopped at the door, tapped one foot after the other to shake the dust off her yellow shoes, then closed her parasol.

  154. 66

    "Isn't there anyone here?"

  155. 67

    Francesco, very pale, was afraid she would say aloud where they were to meet, and motioned toward the old woman's room, where Speranza had gone in a little before with the bowl full of wine.

  156. 68

    "Come tonight, around nine, to the embankment, above the millrace," Eva said in a low voice: then she went into the room, and chatted with the old grandmother, who took advantage of the visit to beg "her darling" to bring two more bowls of wine.

  157. 69

    The girl and the old woman remained alone in the room; Francesco, leaning against the door, felt his heart beating painfully.

  158. 70

    *

  159. 71

    Night was falling, dark and soft as velvet.

  160. The water was dying out, growing colorless under the colorless sky.

  161. From the coppice woods, from the tangled thickets on the bank, like clouds standing still on the last, still-silvery line of the horizon, rose a warm, enervating scent.

  162. The jingling of bells on the embankment, and the distant roar of a mill, broke the deep silence of the bank.

  163. 72

    Disperazione crossed the embankment, slipped down the slope cool with damp grass, and went to bury herself in a thicket of willows; there, crouched, bent double, she began to dig and scrape in the sand, carefully burying five eggs bigger than her fist.

  164. She meant to come back for them the following Friday and take them to the fair at Viadana.

  165. Five, and the three already there, made eight; eight eggs, six farthings: six farthings meant, first of all, a licorice stick, to be licked first and then eaten in tiny bites, bites as small as a little fingernail, or else all in one mouthful; then two soldi of snuff, and two soldi in reserve.

  166. Disperazione always made great use of tobacco: no one could have explained the reason for this passion, especially since the pleasure, for her, lay not in the smell of the tobacco but in the sneeze.

  167. When she sneezed — which by now, from too much use of the tobacco, happened to her rarely — she felt a deep joy: it seemed to her she was doing something marvelous, and she jumped, bowed, writhed about, proud and happy.

  168. 73

    Having buried the five eggs beside the other three, she straightened up and stood a moment listening: she thought she had heard the bells of her uncle's cart — bells whose special jingle she recognized — and thought, without too much fear, of the inevitable beating she would get on going home.

  169. But it didn't matter: let them beat her, let them force her to graze the cows on feast days, when all the other little girls went out strolling; she consoled herself with her eight eggs, with the coins taken from the holy-water font, where Aunt Marietta hid her savings, with her tobacco, and with the hope of growing up.

  170. 74

    "Then I'll have long hair, big hands, arms long like this, like this, like this....

  171. — she spread them as wide as she could.

  172. "Then I too.... slaps this way and that, as many as they want.

  173. And then I'll make the polenta myself, I'll make the tagliatelle myself and.... I'll eat it all myself.

  174. And then I'll go off to Milan too, just like Eva, and I'll buy lots of tobacco, and fans and other things."

  175. 75

    These dreams excited her, especially since Eva's return with her little chains, her fans, her shoes.

  176. 76

    The bells fell silent: for a moment only the roar of the mill sounded, and Speranza pulled out her little packet of tobacco….

  177. But as she carefully unfolded it, her nostrils already flaring, she heard the voices of Francesco and Eva, and glimpsed the two young people passing behind the thickets.

  178. 77

    Where were they going, together, at that hour?

  179. Eva spoke softly, but indifferently:

  180. 78

    "Tomorrow morning I'm leaving: I'm going as far as Casalmaggiore on Anacreonte Taverna's cart....

  181. I'll send you….

  182. 79

    "I'll come to Milan too.... I'll come and find you, sweetheart...." Francesco was saying.

  183. He too spoke softly, but his voice was not his usual voice: Speranza could not have said why, but she felt that voice was not the young man's usual voice.

  184. 80

    And then why did he call Eva "sweetheart"?

  185. Who knows — maybe the way the grandmother called her "my darling" when she wanted the bowl full of wine.

  186. 81

    "....I'll send you a picture postcard, dear," Eva went on.

  187. 82

    A picture postcard?

  188. Very well.

  189. Eva had not even finished saying it before Speranza was already thinking of a way to get the postcard out of the pocket of Francesco's jacket….

  190. Speranza so loved postcards with kittens licking plates on them, or a little house between two trees, or a woman all curly-haired, with a necklace around her bare neck, or a baby doing…. well, one can't say what it was doing.

  191. 83

    But where were those two going, like that, in the dark?

  192. Motionless, hidden by the fronds of the dwarf willow, Speranza waited until Francesco and Eva were far off; — and when the cautious footsteps and hushed voices of the two young people fell silent, and their figures vanished into the colorless background of the deserted bank, among the cloud-like thickets, she opened the little packet and dipped in the thumb and forefinger of her right hand.

  193. 84

    *

  194. 85

    That night Francesco came home looking like a corpse: he did not eat and could not lie down, because the pounding of his heart was choking him.

  195. For the rest of the night he stayed curled up, gasping, moaning.

  196. 86

    "I'm dying.... I'm dying...." he said to himself every so often.

  197. 87

    *

  198. 88

    A few days later it was discovered that the gold clasp had disappeared from the grandmother's chest of drawers.

  199. It caused an infernal uproar; the Magrini accused one another of having stolen the jewel, insulted each other, came to blows.

  200. Disperazione took blows from every side and on every part of her body; for eight days, frightened, starving, almost wounded by the beatings of her dear relatives, she wandered through the fields, the little woods along the bank, the lanes, pilfering what she could to feed herself.

  201. She came home secretly, when she thought she would find no one there, and in those hours of silence she saw only one or another of her aunts — who made use of her to sell the wheat, the flour, the vegetables stolen from the house — or the grandmother, coughing like a hoarse little dog, or Francesco, who seemed to be dying.

  202. 89

    What an ugly face Francesco had, after Eva's second departure!

  203. Day by day he felt worse: it seemed to him that inside his chest the little serpent was growing bigger, no longer stinging but gnawing at his heart; devouring it bit by bit, all around, slowly but ceaselessly, the way Speranza used to do with the candies called “Africans” bought at Viadana.

  204. 90

    One day it seemed to him that his whole heart had by now disappeared; in its place lay the serpent, coiled, thick, enormous, which instead of stinging now lashed its tail, whipping the entrails clenched around its slimy, hard bulk.

  205. 91

    He was suffocating: he could no longer open his mouth.

  206. The air around him seemed to have turned to stone, and it stopped up his mouth, pressed on his lips like a slab of granite.

  207. Everything, inside, outside, around him, everything took on the look, the heaviness, of a nightmare: the masters quarreling, no longer bothering about him as if he were already dead; the grandmother coughing and calling for Speranza; Speranza coming and going, wary and wild, glancing at him in passing the way one looks at a sick animal, and never coming near him, fearful, unkind, selfish; the other servants who cruelly let him understand his desperate state; everything, even the half-hearted attentions of the youngest mistress, the merchant's wife — everything weighed on him, oppressed him, suffocated him.

  208. Almost always, in his labored sleep, he dreamed he stood before an immensely high wall that threatened to collapse: he could not turn back, because a terrible ghost followed him; and the wall, tall, gray, cracked, loomed over his head.

  209. The ghost was her, with the red fan, the amber necklace, and the yellow shoes.

  210. 92

    *

  211. 93

    Disperazione waited in vain for the arrival of the picture postcards addressed to Francesco.

  212. Some arrived for Uncle Ottavio, the merchant, with soldiers pulling faces, and with women very beautiful and nearly naked; one arrived for Uncle Sandrin with a big priest drinking from a flask, and another, very amusing, with a donkey dressed as a man; then two more for the aunt, one which turned into a little balloon when you pulled a thread, the other with a rose trimmed with a blue ribbon (indeed the aunt peeled off the stamp, and read what was written underneath) — but for Francesco, nothing.

  213. How ugly Francesco was!

  214. Uglier and uglier.

  215. Disperazione looked at him and was afraid: afraid above all of those small green eyes, fiercely desperate.

  216. Once she heard him telling another farmhand about a promise and a threat that he and Eva had exchanged in the good days of their love.

  217. 94

    "....if she died first, her spirit would come find me; if I died first, my spirit would go find her; and if I betrayed her, or she betrayed me, whichever of us died first would take revenge, once dead.

  218. So I'll go find her, and if I want to, I'll be able to take my revenge; but where I'll find her, who knows?"

  219. 95

    "In Milan," the other said, ironically.

  220. "But since you'll be about, you'll pass through these parts too, eh?"

  221. 96

    "Could be!" Francesco answered.

  222. Lifting his eyes he saw Speranza looking at him, frightened; he too looked at her and said: "Yes, I'll pass through here, and if Disperazione misbehaves I'll carry her off with me…."

  223. 97

    *

  224. 98

    About six months later a letter arrived from Milan from Ottavio Magrini, addressed to his wife and brothers, in which he told of having again seen, in a café-concert, Eva accompanied by a gentleman.

  225. 99

    "I was sitting at a little table near the door; she came in after me, and I saw her take off her cloak, and at once, dumbfounded, I noticed she was wearing the clasp (the one with the ruby) that went missing last year from Grandmother's drawer.

  226. I remembered then having heard Grandmother say that around those days Eva, who had come to the village for a few days, had been to our house.

  227. Such was the fury that came over me, thinking it was she who had stolen the clasp and caused all the quarrels that broke out among us after that business — such was the fury, I say, that I saw red.

  228. I got up and went and sat down very close to Eva and her companion, a fat gentleman, quite bald, with his eyes set near his temples.

  229. As soon as she saw me, Eva turned first red, then pale, and pretended not to notice me; then, perhaps realizing I was about to open my mouth and make a scene, she leaned toward her companion and said something to him.

  230. 100

    "Both of them got up and left; and I went after them.

  231. Once out in the street I go up to Eva and say to her:

  232. 101

    "'Excuse me, don't you recognize me anymore?

  233. Allow me a word.'

  234. 102

    "Eva pretends only then to notice me.

  235. 103

    "'Oh, Magrini, how are you?

  236. Are you here in Milan?'

  237. 104

    "'Of course,' I answer, 'seeing as I'm here!

  238. Allow me a word.'

  239. 105

    "Eva looks at her friend, her friend crosses his eyes, drawing them as far toward his nose as he can, and then moves off a few steps.

  240. 106

    "Then I say to Eva:

  241. 107

    "'Listen, dear, who gave you the clasp you're wearing on your chest?'

  242. 108

    "'Who gave it to me?

  243. Oh, that's a good one — I bought it!'

  244. 109

    "'Listen, dear, let's not beat about the bush,' I say, 'that clasp is mine; you took it from my house.'

  245. 110

    "Then she makes a scene at me.... what a scene!

  246. She starts telling me she'll sue me for slander, and so on, and so on.

  247. 111

    "'Listen, dear,' I say then, 'don't get so angry.

  248. Since you don't want us to settle this quietly between us, I'll sue you too, and we'll see….'

  249. 112

    "Eva turns into a fury; she calls the gentleman with her, and he comes forward, very slowly, cautiously, indeed, it seemed to me, with a certain fear; she begins telling him the story, and ends by saying:

  250. 113

    "'You remember I've always told you this clasp was given to me by my fiancé, by Francesco Peretti, who is now dead, poor thing….

  251. You'll be my witness.'

  252. 114

    "I ask:

  253. 115

    "'When did he give it to you?'

  254. 116

    "'Well, when we were engaged....'

  255. 117

    "'Ah, very well!

  256. But if the clasp went missing from my house six months ago.... which was when you no longer were, and could no longer be, engaged to poor Francesco?

  257. Besides, he was incapable of a low act, and now you slander him because he's dead?'

  258. 118

    "Eva kept screaming; a lot of people gathered around, and two policemen asked Eva and me to come to the station to settle our dispute."

  259. 119

    *

  260. 120

    The proof was found, and Eva was convicted.

  261. Only one little person could have saved her: Disperazione; but Disperazione was too busy with her own rounds and her own small affairs to meddle in family business.

  262. She only answered yes to the questions her uncles put to her.

  263. 121

    Had Eva come to visit Grandmother?

  264. Yes.

  265. Had Eva gone near the mirror?

  266. Yes.

  267. Had she looked inside the drawer?

  268. Yes.

  269. 122

    Of the nighttime adventure she said not a word; it seemed to her that her uncles would have understood what she had gone to do, that night, among the bushes on the bank.

  270. 123

    Besides, she did not really understand what it was all about, and believed that Eva really had stolen the clasp, as everyone claimed.

  271. Moreover she never dared to say Francesco's name, because she was afraid of his ghost.

  272. 124

    *

  273. 125

    Only later did she understand everything, and feel the responsibility of her thoughtless behavior.

  274. But it was too late; Eva had already served her sentence, and Speranza judged it useless to speak.

  275. 126

    She was sixteen by then, and was courting a handsome blond miller, rosy-cheeked, powdered with flour, with whom she too had wanted to exchange the promise of the appearance of spirits.

  276. She would have liked to exchange the threat of posthumous revenge too, in case of betrayal; but she remembered what had happened with Eva and Francesco, and was afraid.

  277. It seemed to her that Eva's conviction had been Francesco's revenge: and with that thought she drove away her own belated scruples of conscience too.

The particulars

The text
I giuochi della vita, Grazia Deledda. The Games of Life.
Translation
Public-domain Italian (Deledda, d. 1936; collection published 1905). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
Words
Every word of the text, by letter.
Data
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.