A Life Read Free Page B

Alfonso came along at the right moment and was welcomed.
    A few years before, seduced by a longing for independence, Signor Lanucci had left a job which was not particularly good but did keep his family adequately, and had begun acting as agent for a variety of companies representing almost every conceivable article. But though the poor man wrote off every day to companies whose addresses he took from the back pages of newspapers, he still earned less than he had before as a clerk. And so now the family ’s finances were so precarious that their mood was sad.
    This had increased Alfonso’s homesickness, for sad people make places sad.
    They treated him affectionately, but Signor Lanucci aroused Alfonso’s pity, particularly when he saw the poor man making an effort to be polite, to smile and to show interest in his affairs, though Alfonso realized that he himself was only a source of revenue.
    Signora Lanucci, long accustomed to consoling her husband for his fruitless efforts, soon assumed a similar attitude to Alfonso’s and came to take such an intense interest in the young man’s affairs that she spoke of them as if they were her own. Signor Maller’s invitation, which Alfonso mentioned, aroused a most flattering reaction in her; she spoke of it as if it were sure to make the clerk’s fortune; so little was she used to good fortune that it took her by surprise.
    Lucinda was about forty but, being small and plump with thick grey hair, looked more. She had never been beautiful. The small dowry she had brought her husband had melted away in somespeculation with Turkish shares. She was bright and lively and loved to talk; her pale suffering face had won Alfonso’s sympathy at once.
    She seemed devoted to her husband; not so devoted, apparently, to her son Gustavo, aged eighteen, whom she called a rough diamond ; her chief affection went to her daughter Lucia, aged sixteen , who did dressmaking in private houses. The mother earned more than all of them as a teacher in an elementary school, but they could not have made ends meet without Lucia’s earnings. Signora Lucinda was desperate at seeing her daughter forced to spend her youth at a sewing machine, while hers had been spent better, for she had come from well-to-do people and had studied and amused herself. Their means now were so narrow that she had been unable to do anything about Lucia’s education; but she did not complain of this, unaware that the results corresponded to the outlay. Intelligent though she was, Signora Lucinda did not notice how insipid her daughter’s prattle was. She saw her as beautiful, while actually Lucia was thin and anaemic like the rest of the family, with fair reddish colouring and, because of her thinness, a mouth that seemed to reach her ears. The mother’s behaviour was like that of a woman of the people, and she even swore, all quite deliberately, for she was an extreme democrat; her daughter had quickly picked up, from the middle-class homes she frequented, ladylike mannerisms quite out of place in her own home. Gustavo, rough and simple, often jeered at her for it, earning his mother’s dislike more by that than by his wastefulness.
    Alfonso found his black suit laid out on the bed, carefully folded. Signora Lanucci had thought of everything, from tie to gleaming boots ready at the foot of the bed. Alfonso too felt excited by the visit he was about to make. Though he had not Signora Lanucci’s illusions about it, they were contagious, and he was more agitated than seemed necessary. He took off his everyday suit and flung it on the bed as though he would never have to put it on again.
    On entering the small living-room where the family ate, he almost imagined himself to be really well dressed. Signora Lanucci looked at him and admired his appearance. Gustavo, filthy, came up to him with a benevolent smile, his mouth full. This young gentleman aroused no envy in him as his own desires were quitedifferent: a few coins in his