Where have you beenAt the Villa Rossa. Helen. I went back to the drivers.

 He came back with a handful of roasted coffee beans
 He came back with a handful of roasted coffee beans.Theyll send you to a hospital. I tried to move sideways so that it did not fall on me. if the war should end. Manera said. I will probably marry Miss Barkley. To the north we could look across a valley and see a forest of chestnut trees and behind it another mountain on this side of the river. there was snow on the guns and there were paths in the snow going back to the latrines behind trenches.Bacchus. The afternoon was a quiet time.Dont I talk Italian good enoughI knew you was an American all right.No. I looked across the wire at the Austrian lines.Goodnight. I would have liked to drive over the new road but it was not yet finished. Passing where the shells had landed I avoided the small broken places and smelled the high explosive and the smell of blasted clay and stone and freshly shattered flint.

 Could I join nowIm afraid not now. Shes a nurse. looking for cuts or stone bruises. Get well soon. Because we would not wear any clothes because it was so hot and the window open and the swallows flying over the roofs of the houses and when it was dark afterward and you went to the window very small bats hunting over the houses and close down over the trees and we would drink the capri and the door locked and it hot and only a sheet and the whole night and we would both love each other all night in the hot night in Milan. said Rinaldi. Hes very good. I saw arched stone bridges over the river where tracks turned off from the road and we passed stone farmhouses with pear trees candelabraed against their south walls and low stone walls in the fields. I think so. Manera said. was blonde and had a tawny skin and gray eyes. Sometimes all niceness gone and glad to get out on the street but always another day starting and then another night.Ill be right here.It was a ghastly show. the major said. but it was not successful.

The next year there were many victories. The major was at the telephone sitting on a box. you dont. and mark a cross on both legs. It was that which shook my faith. she said.Yes.You want us to stay here or can we look aroundBetter stay here. Again the candlelight made its shadows on the wall. I could not see the guns but they were evidently firing directly over us. He is the legitimate son of President Wilson. said the priest. But millions of fools like you dont know it. I said. They were very nice and we had a big evening. Villa San Giovanni.

 There are some people who never realize. She did not seem tall walking toward me but she looked very lovely. said the captain. I thought he had a fine name and he came from Minnesota which made a lovely name: Ireland of Minnesota. there was the smell of marble floors and hospital.Shes not awfully well.We sat down on a bench and I looked at her. A trench mortar shell. I asked what time the attack was to he and they said as soon as it was dark.Oh.Not Strega.Here is the American Tenente. There were many marble busts on painted wooden pillars along the walls of the room they used for an office.In Milano. she said.Carabinieri.

 lieutenant! he shouted. It tasted of rusty metal. They could drive all right. They arent girls; they are old war comrades. A. Rinaldi said. The fields were green and there were small green shoots on the vines. They were going to put over another bridge when the bombardment started and some troops were to cross at the shallows up above at the bend of the river. I would go crazy.I think we can get you the silver. Wait till I get cleaned up. A soldier came along after the last of the stragglers. Today I see priest with girls. in order that I might understand perfectly.As the ambulance climbed along the road.Bacchus.

It hasnt come up. shes very nice.The forest of oak trees on the mountain beyond the town was gone.Say. Dio te salve. They poured me more wine and I told the story about the English private soldier who was placed under the shower bath. he said. his hands moving very fast and the bandage coming taut and sure.Oh. I tried to make out whether they were members of the family or what; but they were all uniformly classical. baby. the gas mask in an oblong tin can. My hand went in and my knee was down on my shin. We went for a stretcher but there wasnt any. The river ran behind us and the town had been captured very handsomely but the mountains beyond it could not be taken and I was very glad the Austrians seemed to want to come back to the town some time. The lighter was shaped like a Fiat radiator.

Were you in the StatesSure. Tenente Can I help in any way He was the quietest one of the four. We were just beginning to get some of them. No one to make fun of. Tell me. I said. Over on the right they had the Duke of Aosta. He held up the glass. then. You are a dear. Manera and Gavuzzi each went off with a load of wounded. It was all right if she was. she said.Thank God I did not become involved with the British.Oh.Im not angry.

Porta feriti I shouted holding my hands cupped. an ambulance was waiting by the side door and inside the door. I leaned forward in the dark to kiss her and there was a sharp stinging flash. the tiny man with the long thin neck and the goat beard. The carabinieri waved us to go on. There was fighting in the mountains and at night we could see the flashes from the artillery. Where it had run down under my shirt it was warm and sticky. Manera said. Also we were required to wear an automatic pistol; even doctors and sanitary officers. But those grenadiers; all over six feet. how do you feel Where is that damn corkscrew You are so brave and quiet I forget you are suffering. chewed. now this is the point of the story. He is a priest; he will appreciate it. Name he asked softly.I ate the end of my piece of cheese and took a swallow of wine.

 Goodnight. Here they would never have arrested him. His breath went away.The plain was rich with crops there were many orchards of fruit trees and beyond the plain the mountains were brown and bare. I shouted to the driver. a noble man and with whose injustice. Manera said. the pillars with the marble busts. I said. Lacerations of the scalp (he probed Does that hurt Christ. The vineyards were thin and bare-branched too and all the country wet and brown and dead with the autumn. Not very well. They were sitting in the dugout talking and when I came in they stopped. she said.Hes an American.I knocked over his candle with the pillow and got into bed in the dark.

 father. I think not. he straightened up.Are you very tired she asked. It might be good though. after all. Passini was quiet now. Then the major told the story of the eleven Czechoslovaks and the Hungarian corporal.Dont go. the orderly said.Why dont you ride with the transport I asked.Im not drunk.A rivederci. He bellows. If they did. I was after him.

 They want to get you the medaglia dargento but perhaps they can get only the bronze.No. have that pleasant air of a dog whoStop it.I lifted it to arms length and the strands cleared. He opened his trunk and took out a bottle. It ought to be good. You havent any fracture. How is GordiniHes all right. the meal was finished. The ovens and some deep holes had been equipped as dressing stations. said Bassi.Did they cross the river all rightEnormously. I just tell you. she said. A shell burst short near the river bank. Manera said.

I looked in her eyes and put my arm around her as I had before and kissed her. You could not tell anything about them.Were you there. Really. I remember having a silly idea he might come to the hospital where I was. He smiled. I wanted to go to Austria without war.Have you any cheeseThe major spoke grudgingly to the orderly who ducked back into the hole again and came out with a quarter of a white cheese.Nothing. You get out and fall down by the road and get a bump on your head and Ill pick you up on our way back and take you to a hospital. father. But its very beautiful. I would take you and never hurt you. Youre not an Italian. Inside the dugout were the three drivers sitting against the wall. He didnt have a sabre cut.

 In the dark I could not see where it came from the canvas overhead.Ciaou! he said. You like herNo. then finally it climbed quite fast. to ride along the road across the plain and deliver the wounded at the two hospitals.The forest of oak trees on the mountain beyond the town was gone. The river was low and there were stretches of sand and pebbles with a narrow channel of water and sometimes the water spread like a sheen over the pebbly bed. Then I thought of his puttees. helping ourselves to wine from the grasscovered gallon flask; it swung in a metal cradle and you pulled the neck of the flask down with the forefinger and the wine. Gordini could not drive. father. Bacchus or no Bacchus.Im all right. we knew it was all over for that year. Are you badly hitIn the leg. His helmet was off and his forehead was bleeding below the hair line.

 Also we were required to wear an automatic pistol; even doctors and sanitary officers. When people realize how bad it is they cannot do anything to stop it because they go crazy.A rivederla. Drink that. said the priest.That was a big trench mortar. I said. My God what would a man do with a woman like that except worship her What else is an Englishwoman good forYou are an ignorant foulmouthed dago. Bless me.Bring Caruso. Inside they were operating on all the tables. Laugh.I believe in the Free Masons. They arent girls; they are old war comrades.This is a rotten game we play. I said.

 waiting for Catherine Barkley to come down.Must attack. the lieutenant said.Two carabinieri held the car up. she said.You think notNo. We are war brothers. But I am telling it for our priest here. you cant kiss me here. sucked and snapped in the ends. In the town there were more guns. You see I didnt care about the other thing and he could have had it all. he said. There were three doctors that I knew.I dont believe it.Kiss me.

War is not won by victory. There was fighting in the mountains and at night we could see the flashes from the artillery. when you knew that that was all there was. You love EnglandNot too well. and the major started us with red wine in mugs. I said. said the lieutenant. I could see the river far down below. isnt itQuite.Hell say I did it on purpose.The adjutant. falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves. sometimes it backed on a turn. Fillipo Vincenza. Laugh. I do sometimes.

 the captain commenced picking on the priest.A shell fell close and they both dropped to the ground and dropped me. fat and prosperous and Vittorio Emmanuele. hung over the two beds. Gordini stood up and went outside with me. you dont.You dont go at allI just go to see if there is anything new. she said. The ovens and some deep holes had been equipped as dressing stations. The mountain that was beyond the valley and the hillside where the chestnut forest grew was captured and there were victories beyond the plain on the plateau to the south and we crossed the river in August and lived in a house in Gorizia that had a fountain and many thick shady trees in a walled garden and a wistaria vine purple on the side of the house. The drivers were pleased with it and I left them there.Rinaldi went out with me.We were off the driveway.An outside nation cant make you be a soldier. Underneath we are the same. Perhaps we should have a drink.

 Thank you very much.Porta feriti I shouted holding my hands cupped. I said. darling. I just couldnt stand the nurseseveningoff aspect of it. Evviva lesercito. No one to make fun of. As soon as I get the papers on these wounded Ill take you along the road and drop you with your medical officers. It might be good though.I sat in the reception hail of the villa. The lighter was shaped like a Fiat radiator. Thats where the money comes from. Then.Where have you beenAt the Villa Rossa. Helen. I went back to the drivers.