‘Careful you don’t make the Major jealous,’ Lieutenant Marchi told him ambiguously.
Cossa calmly looked at him. Was he alluding to his relationship with Ursula?
‘What do you mean?’
‘Pietro is very special in this house.’
Cossa shrugged. What could he possibly mean by that? he asked himself, completely disinterestedly.
‘You seem pensive, my dear Lieutenant,’ the Colonel’s wife told him, given that he’d almost involuntarily headed in her direction. ‘Is there something wrong?’
‘Pensive? Let’s not exaggerate! I was only asking myself what role beauty has to play in our lives, if it’s right for one to admire it without feeling awkward about it, or if one should instead distrust it, if the person who displays said beauty really thinks of it as a mark of distinction, and what such a soul co
