After the Divorce quotes

Nineteen Hundred and Seven. In the “strangers’ room” of the Porru house a woman sat crying.

Crouched on the floor near the bed, her knees drawn up, her arms resting on her knees, and her forehead on her arms, she wept and sobbed continuously

, shaking her head from time to time as though to indicate that there was no more hope, absolutely none at all; while her plump shoulders and straight young back rose and fell in the tightly fitting yellow bodice, like a wave of the sea.

“

He was a wretch, a regular yellow vulture.

God may have forgiven him, but there, they say he starved his wife to death! He was Costantino’s guardian; the boy had some money of his own, his uncle spent it all, and then began to ill-use him.

The eyes were large, and chestnut-brown in colour; the mouth small, and as innocent as a child’s, and there was a little cleft in the middle of the chin.

He looked like a young Apollo.

The moment his eyes fell upon Giovanna, although he too had been waiting for that moment, he grew whiter than ever, and stopped short, resisting the guards. Giovanna rushed forward, sobbing, and seized hold of his manacled hands.

Paolo followed her with his eyes; then, limping across the courtyard to his mother, he said a singular thing:

“Listen to me, mamma; before two years have gone by that young woman will be married to someone else!”

“What do you mean by saying such a thing, Dr. Pededdu!” cried the mother, who always addressed her son by his nickname when she was angry with him. “Upon my word, you must be crazy!”

“What do you mean by saying such a thing, Dr. Pededdu!” cried the mother, who always addressed her son by his nickname when she was angry with him.

“Upon my word, you must be crazy!”

“Oh! mamma, I have crossed the sea,” he replied. “Let us hope, at all events, that she will engage me as her lawyer.”

Aunt Bachissia, walking along plunged in thought, answered through her clenched teeth,

“He will make a good lawyer; he will gnaw his clients to the bone and then swallow them whole!”

Then the two walked on in silence, but a moment later Aunt Bachissia stumbled, and as she did so, for some reason that she could not fathom, it flashed into her mind that, should it ever so fall out that Giovanna were to apply for …

But there! enough of such melancholy thoughts! Nowadays people are more careful, they don’t allow themselves to tumble into the fire! Moreover, to balance the passion for brandy, Brontu had his other passion, for Giovanna.

Ah, brandy and Giovanna! The two most beautiful, ardent, intoxicating things in the whole world!

But where Giovanna was concerned Brontu was as timid and fearful as he was reckless in the matter of brandy. He trembled merely at the thought of approaching her—of speaking to her.

He was, no doubt, a great simpleton, but as he thought of these things, he sometimes cried like a child. Yet all the time he never gave up hope.

The years passed by; day followed day slowly, regularly, uneventfully, like drops of water in a grotto, dripping from stone to stone.

Almost every convict in the prison, especially those whose terms were not very long, hoped for a remission, and kept close count of the days already elapsed and of those yet to come. Their accuracy was amazing;

As time went on this love became more and more engrossing; she came to represent the far-off home, family, liberty—life itself. All, all, was comprehended in her: hope, faith, endurance, peace, the very love of life!

She became his soul.

When the inexorable King of Spades threatened him with that horrible thing, he did not know it, but it was the death of his soul that he was holding over him.

“That remains to be seen!” shouted Aunt Bachissia, whose bile was beginning to rise. “Was the punishment for that, or for Basile Ledda’s murder?”

“If it had been for the murder, only Costantino would have been punished.”

“Well,” said the old witch, her green eyes glittering with triumph, “is not that just what I am saying?

He said to himself: “I have no home, and there is no one belonging to me; for this one day everyone rushes to see me out of curiosity, but by tomorrow they will all have forgotten my very existence.

I am like a bird that has lost its nest.

What is there for me to do?”

A terrible misfortune has overtaken my house. Do you see how old I have grown? For months I have not been able to close my eyes.

Giovanna, my daughter-in-law, has a lover⁠—Costantino Ledda.

You don’t seem surprised!” she added quickly, seeing that the other remained unmoved. “You knew it already! Some one has known about it! Perhaps there are others too—perhaps everyone knows the disgrace of my house!”