THE SOUL OF ANOTHERIn that foreign surname, Mrs Bellotti recognised a sign that was even worse than a bad reputation and should have instantly put her on her guard. The announcement that Lieutenant Wojciechowski would come over for tea had thundered in her hostile ears: that scoundrel had set his sights on Giulia. Having been in the colony for a decade, she showed no indulgence towards the officers there: their foreignness to the place was all too obvious. Those barbarians turned life in the city upside down, and then lost sight of it amidst their luxurious idleness. The Officers’ Club functioned like a public square. Mrs Bellotti hardly ever set foot in it, and when she did so it was with the greatest reluctance. In that place, everything turned into theatre, and then dissolved into febri
