And the generous girl fell asleep, happy and content in the thought of the happiness of the sister she loved.
Time, good old time, the eternal wise old gentleman, accomplished his task. Lulu asked herself whether this unmarried sister who acted as bridesmaid should wear a gown of blue silk or a simple one of straw-colored foulard with lace. She asked Roberto if there would be a great many bonbons for her, and Sofia if she would give her that pretty embroidered handkerchief that was like a zephyr, a cloud. Roberto and Sofia, knowing what the girl’s heart was capable of, smiled at her gay thoughtlessness, and loved her, and looked upon her as their Providence.
“For I have always maintained,” said Roberto Montefranco to a friend, speaking of his marriage, “that a couple should be of opposite tastes. Extremes touch. Thus they will understand each other, will mingle, will form a complete whole, while those of similar tastes are like two parallel lines; they walk on together, but never meet. And then when there is love—! I have always said so.”
THE END OF CANDIA
BY GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO
Gabriele d’Annunzio, Italian poet and novelist, whose real name is Rapagnetta, was born on the Adriatic in 1864. In 1898 he was chosen member of the Chamber of Deputies, when he announced himself a social democrat. His first poems, which appeared in 1879, showed great talent, but it is as a writer of richly colored, vivid, voluptuous prose, which is at the same time classic in form and correct, almost finikin, in its perfect style, that he ranks among the best of Italy’s authors. His later stories grow deeper, more sombre, and unpleasant in theme, and are full of gruesome realism, borrowed from the modern French and Russian. He is a symbolist whose love of musical cadence sometimes leaves little room for sound thinking. But he is a master of style. His earlier stories, one of which is given here, are not so unpleasant as the later ones, and are frank imitations of De Maupassant—in this case of “The String.”
THE END OF CANDIA
BY GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO