:51:06
The captain seemed to have read
my thoughts.
:51:09
In his bad grammar Latin,
he told me
:51:10
that even he knew nothing about
this lovely and mysterious lady.
:51:14
She had turned to him,
asking for protection
:51:17
as if she feared something
or someone.
:51:20
But now he had to leave her,
having to go up north.
:51:25
I could have taken care of her.
:51:45
Why do you look at me like that ?
:51:48
You do not recognize me anymore ?
:51:51
I feel unimportant next to you.
I cannot call you by your first name.
:51:55
You are no longer the brave
and bizarre officer I knew.
:52:09
I will always remain the same girl.
:52:13
She who had three moments of madness
in her life.
:52:16
And the last, wonderful madness
was knowing you.
:52:32
We were invited to a concert
at the hunchback Du Bois' home.
:52:35
He was an eccentric gentleman
with uncertain amorous boundaries,
:52:39
just as uncertain were
the boundaries of the Parma dukedom,
:52:41
divided between the Spanish
and the French.
:52:44
That evening, two civilizations,
two opposite conceptions of life,
:52:47
faced each other.
:52:49
An antique proverb says,
:52:53
"What is lighter than a feather ?
:52:57
Ashes.
:52:58
And what is lighter than ashes ?