111/147 The memory of distant hours of his early youth came back to him, of a time when he was still unmarried and had no thought of marriage. He recalled the close of a thunder storm in the upper Valsolda on the crest of the Pian Biscagno. How different his fate would have been had his parents lived thirty or even twenty years longer! At least one of them! In his mind's eye he saw the stone in the cemetery at Oria: TO FRANCO IN GOD HIS LUISA; and his eyes filled with tears. Then came the violent reaction of his will against this soft langour of the intellect, this temptation of weakness. A voice behind him answered: "You do not wish to listen to us ?" Benedetto turned round, surprised. |