Chapter LXXII
At home
Clara had lost weight since the last time they had seen her. She had cut her hair. The face of a young woman with sudden and unruly flashes of her youth were bridled by a painstakingly achieved discipline. She arrived alone and everyone agreed in the appropriate absence of Fosco and Rudi.
There was no need to risk it. There was nothing they could have done. Nothing they could have done for anyone if not to try to fill a deep void with the warmth of their presence.
Giulia herself did not know whether or not she wanted the attention of those around her. There were moments in which her daily tasks distracted her, but sitting at the table- There’s an empty seat- she thought to herself every time, and it was as if that missing place plunged her into an unfathomable ab
