The captain wrinkled his bushy white eyebrows, and looked fixedly at the little drummer while covering him up with the coverlet. Then, slowly, almost unconsciously, yet still looking at him, his hand went to his képi, which he took off.
“Captain!” exclaimed the astonished boy. “What, captain, for me?”
Then that rough soldier, who had never spoken a gentle word to an inferior, replied in a soft and exceedingly affectionate voice:
“I am but a captain, thou art a hero.”
Then he threw his arms about the little drummer and kissed him with all his heart.
LULU’S TRIUMPH
BY MATILDA SERAO
Matilda Serao was born in 1856 at Patras, Greece. She is Italy’s foremost woman writer, adopting a career very unusual with her countrywomen. Up to her thirtieth year she contributed sketches to periodicals.
In her early work she distinctly shows the influence of French realists like Zola. Few writers know Balzac as she does. Later she developed a liking for the psychological problem novel, and later still, in “Christ’s Country,” she seems to have joined that neomystic school represented in Italy by Fogazzaro, especially in his “Saint.” Her style is slovenly, and, though not strong-minded, more like that of a man. But her stories are told with great spirit. The heroine of one of her very latest stories is an American, but she does not at all sympathise with the American reader’s “absurd wish for happy endings.” “Lulu’s Triumph” combines the singular merits of a “happy ending” according to the American idea, with a sad ending according to the author’s.