At the Grimaldi she had been betrayed by the illusion of a rebirth. She had felt young in a way that she never had been, as the only daughter of old parents who lived like old people. Andrea couldn’t understand that she herself, pretending to be something else, believed she was that; she wanted to experience an age that her parents, because of

“But you aren’t like the others, for me, dear Custo. I will be in a bad way when you leave, after your degree.” “I’ll stay, professor.” “You can’t. You have to make your way. What could staying with me offer you? You’ll waste a few years, nothing more. And in life there are no years to waste.”

“I shouldn’t worry about it, really. But when we reach the point of being indifferent to the approval of others, it’s a sign that many things for us have faded. When we’re no longer afflicted by defeats, it’s a sign that we no longer believe in victories: that life runs over us without doing us good or ill.”

Augusta was right: it’s impossible to go home after experiencing freedom, even if it was simply the innocent freedom of going out with her friends, attending the university, living the chaste and carefree life of the Grimaldi.

Suddenly, at a turning in the road, they saw the sea. It sparkled in the moonlight, driving a foam of diamonds along the shore. Xenia thought: “Surely now Dino will stop and kiss me.” Instead, dragging her by the arm, he kept walking. So they reached the door of her room. “Take your time,” he said. “I always have a shower at night. I’ll call down

They wouldn’t live together now except during the last year: the one when, following customs handed down unrevised, the mother, rather than die under the eyes of the old servant who had always been with her—and who in fact was her only friend—would have to confront that tremendous, ultimate human experience before a young stranger who knew nothing

She was wearing a new dress, but these days clothes no longer gave her confidence. “It looks good,” Andrea said, and that was all. In the blink of an eye the new dress became an old dress.

Better to return to Rome. Sell the furniture, collect a little money, and show up before Sister Lorenza. “Forgive me, Sister, have the Mother forgive me.” Then she would enter her friends’ rooms by surprise, while they were studying around the oil lamp, saying: “Make room for me next to you.” What a moment it would be, how moving! She had always

Xenia had become more beautiful. Her body acquired slenderness in her new, stylish clothes; the greedy look that hardened her eyes had disappeared, or at least was more deeply hidden. Furnishing the house had been a pleasant occupation that had both revealed and refined her natural good taste. “Wouldn’t you like to do interior design?” people