A Farewell to Arms Page 11

I stopped at a barber shop and was shaved and went home to the hospital. My leg was as well as it would get for a long time. I had been up for examination three days before. There were still some treatments to take before my course at the Ospedale.

  Maggiore was finished and I walked along the side street practising not limping. An old man was cutting silhouettes under an arcade. I stopped to watch him. Two girls were posing and he cut their silhouettes together, snipping very fast and looking at them, his head on one side. The girls were giggling. He showed me the silhouettes before he pasted them on white paper and handed them to the girls.

  "They're beautiful," he said. "How about you, Tenente?"

  The girls went away looking at their silhouettes and laughing. They were nice-looking girls. One of them worked in the wine shop across from the hospital.

  "All right," I said.

  "Take your cap off."

  "No. With it on."

  "It will not be so beautiful," the old man said. "But," he brightened, "it will be more military."

  He snipped away at the black paper, then separated the two thicknesses and pasted the profiles on a card and handed them to me.

  "How much?"

  "That's all right." He waved his hand. "I just made them for you."

  "Please." I brought out some coppers. "For pleasure."

  "No. I did them for a pleasure. Give them to your girl."

  "Many thanks until we meet."

  "Until I see thee."

  I went on to the hospital. There were some letters, an official one, and some others. I was to have three weeks' convalescent leave and then return to the front. I read it over carefully. Well, that was that. The convalescent leave started October fourth when my course was finished. Three weeks was twenty-one days. That made October twenty-fifth. I told them I would not be in and went to the restaurant a little way up the street from the hospital for supper and read my letters and the Corriere Della Sera at the table. There was a letter from my grandfather, containing family news, patriotic encouragement, a draft for two hundred dollars, and a few clippings; a dull letter from the priest at our mess, a letter from a man I knew who was flying with the French and had gotten in with a wild gang and was telling about it, and a note from Rinaldi asking me how long I was going to skulk in Milano and what was all the news? He wanted me to bring him phonograph records and enclosed a list. I drank a small bottle of chianti with the meal, had a coffee afterward with a glass of cognac, finished the paper, put my letters in my pocket, left the paper on the table with the tip and went out. In my room at the hospital I undressed, put on pajamas and a dressing-gown, pulled down the curtains on the door that opened onto the balcony and sitting up in bed read Boston papers from a pile Mrs. Meyers had left for her boys at the hospital. The Chicago White Sox were winning the American League pennant and the New York Giants were leading the National League. Babe Ruth was a pitcher then playing for Boston. The papers were dull, the news was local and stale, and the war news was all old. The American news was all training camps. I was glad I wasn't in a training camp. The baseball news was all I could read and I did not have the slightest interest in it. A number of papers together made it impossible to read with interest. It was not very timely but I read at it for a while. I wondered if America really got into the war, if they would close down the major leagues. They probably wouldn't. There was still racing in Milan and the war could not be much worse. They had stopped racing in France. That was where our horse Japalac came from. Catherine was not due on duty until nine o'clock. I heard her passing along the floor when she first came on duty and once saw her pass in the hall. She went to several other rooms and finally came into mine.

  "I'm late, darling," she said. "There was a lot to do. How are you?"

  I told her about my papers and the leave.

  "That's lovely," she said. "Where do you want to go?"

  "Nowhere. I want to stay here."

  "That's silly. You pick a place to go and I'll come too."

  "How will you work it?"

  "I don't know. But I will."

  "You're pretty wonderful."

  "No I'm not. But life isn't hard to manage when you've nothing to lose."

  "How do you mean?"

  "Nothing. I was only thinking how small obstacles seemed that once were so big."

  "I should think it might be hard to manage."

  "No it won't, darling. If necessary I'll simply leave. But it won't come to that."

  "Where should we go?"

  "I don't care. Anywhere you want. Anywhere we don't know people."

  "Don't you care where we go?"

  "No. I'll like any place."

  She seemed upset and taut.

  "What's the matter, Catherine?"

  "Nothing. Nothing's the matter."

  "Yes there is."

  "No nothing. Really nothing."

  "I know there is. Tell me, darling. You can tell me."

  "It's nothing."

  "Tell me."

  "I don't want to. I'm afraid I'll make you unhappy or worry you."

  "No it won't."

  "You're sure? It doesn't worry me but I'm afraid to worry you."

  "It won't if it doesn't worry you."

  "I don't want to tell."

  "Tell it."

  "Do I have to?"

  "Yes."

  "I'm going to have a baby, darling. It's almost three months along. You're not worried, are you? Please please don't. You mustn't worry."

  "All right."

  "Is it all right?"

  "Of course."

  "I did everything. I took everything but it didn't make any difference."

  "I'm not worried."

  "I couldn't help it, darling, and I haven't worried about it. You mustn't worry or feel badly."

  "I only worry about you."

  "That's it. That's what you mustn't do. People have babies all the time. Everybody has babies. It's a natural thing."

  "You're pretty wonderful."

  "No I'm not. But you mustn't mind, darling. I'll try and not make trouble for you. I know I've made trouble now. But haven't I been a good girl until now? You never knew it, did you?"

  "No."

  "It will all be like that. You simply mustn't worry. I can see you're worrying. Stop it. Stop it right away. Wouldn't you like a drink, darling? I know a drink always makes you feel cheerful."

  "No. I feel cheerful. And you're pretty wonderful."

  "No I'm not. But I'll fix everything to be together if you pick out a place for us to go. It ought to be lovely in October. We'll have a lovely time, darling, and I'll write you every day while you're at the front."

  "Where will you be?"

  "I don't know yet. But somewhere splendid. I'll look after all that."

  We were quiet awhile and did not talk. Catherine was sitting on the bed and I was looking at her but we did not touch each other. We were apart as when some one comes into a room and people are self-conscious. She put out her hand and took mine.

  "You aren't angry are you, darling?"

  "No."

  "And you don't feel trapped?"

  "Maybe a little. But not by you."

  "I didn't mean by me. You mustn't be stupid. I meant trapped at all."

  "You always feel trapped biologically."

  She went away a long way without stirring or removing her hand.

  "'Always' isn't a pretty word."

  "I'm sorry."

  "It's all right. But you see I've never had a baby and I've never even loved any one. And I've tried to be the way you wanted and then you talk about 'always."

  "I could cut off my tongue," I offered.

  "Oh, darling!" she came back from wherever she had been. "You mustn't mind me." We were both together again and the self-consciousness was gone. "We really are the same one and we mustn't misunderstand on purpose."

  "We won't."

  "But people do. They love each o
ther and they misunderstand on purpose and they fight and then suddenly they aren't the same one."

  "We won't fight."

  "We mustn't. Because there's only us two and in the world there's all the rest of them. If anything comes between us we're gone and then they have us."

  "They won't get us," I said. "Because you're too brave. Nothing ever happens to the brave."

  "They die of course."

  "But only once."

  "I don't know. Who said that?"

  "The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?"

  "Of course. Who said it?"

  "I don't know."

  "He was probably a coward," she said. "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them."

  "I don't know. It's hard to see inside the head of the brave."

  "Yes. That's how they keep that way."

  "You're an authority."

  "You're right, darling. That was deserved."

  "You're brave."

  "No," she said. "But I would like to be."

  "I'm not," I said. "I know where I stand. I've been out long enough to know. I'm like a ball-player that bats two hundred and thirty and knows he's no better."

  "What is a ball-player that bats two hundred and thirty? It's awfully impressive."

  "It's not. It means a mediocre hitter in baseball."

  "But still a hitter," she prodded me.

  "I guess we're both conceited," I said. "But you are brave."

  "No. But I hope to be."

  "We're both brave," I said. "And I'm very brave when I've had a drink."

  "We're splendid people," Catherine said. She went over to the armoire and brought me the cognac and a glass. "Have a drink, darling," she said. "You've been awfully good."

  "I don't really want one."

  "Take one."

  "All right." I poured the water glass a third full of cognac and drank it off.

  "That was very big," she said. "I know brandy is for heroes. But you shouldn't exaggerate."

  "Where will we live after the war?"

  "In an old people's home probably," she said. "For three years I looked forward very childishly to the war ending at Christmas. But now I look forward till when our son will be a lieutenant commander."

  "Maybe he'll be a general."

  "If it's an hundred years' war he'll have time to try both of the services."

  "Don't you want a drink?"

  "No. It always makes you happy, darling, and it only makes me dizzy."

  "Didn't you ever drink brandy?"

  "No, darling. I'm a very old-fashioned wife."

  I reached down to the floor for the bottle and poured another drink.

  "I'd better go to have a look at your compatriots," Catherine said. "Perhaps you'll read the papers until I come back."

  "Do you have to go?"

  "Now or later."

  "All right. Now."

  "I'll come back later."

  "I'll have finished the papers," I said.

  22

  It turned cold that night and the next day it was raining. Coming home from the Ospedale Maggiore it rained very hard and I was wet when I came in. Up in my room the rain was coming down heavily outside on the balcony, and the wind blew it against the glass doors. I changed my clothing and drank some brandy but the brandy did not taste good. I felt sick in the night and in the morning after breakfast I was nauseated.

  "There is no doubt about it," the house surgeon said. "Look at the whites of his eyes, Miss."

  Miss Gage looked. They had me look in a glass. The whites of the eyes were yellow and it was the jaundice. I was sick for two weeks with it. For that reason we did not spend a convalescent leave together. We had planned to go to Pallanza on Lago Maggiore. It is nice there in the fall when the leaves turn. There are walks you can take and you can troll for trout in the lake. It would have been better than Stresa because there are fewer people at Pallanza. Stresa is so easy to get to from Milan that there are always people you know. There is a nice village at Pallanza and you can row out to the islands where the fishermen live and there is a restaurant on the biggest island. But we did not go.

  One day while I was in bed with jaundice Miss Van Campen came in the room, opened the door into the armoire and saw the empty bottles there. I had sent a load of them down by the porter and I believe she must have seen them going out and come up to find some more. They were mostly vermouth bottles, marsala bottles, capri bottles, empty chianti flasks and a few cognac bottles. The porter had carried out the large bottles, those that had held vermouth, and the straw-covered chianti flasks, and left the brandy bottles for the last. It was the brandy bottles and a bottle shaped like a bear, which had held k�mmel, that Miss Van Campen found. The bear shaped bottle enraged her particularly. She held it up, the bear was sitting up on his haunches with his paws up, there was a cork in his glass head and a few sticky crystals at the bottom. I laughed.

  "It is k�mmel," I said. "The best k�mmel comes in those bearshaped bottles. It comes from Russia."

  "Those are all brandy bottles, aren't they?" Miss Van Campen asked.

  "I can't see them all," I said. "But they probably are."

  "How long has this been going on?"

  "I bought them and brought them in myself," I said. "I have had Italian officers visit me frequently and I have kept brandy to offer them."

  "You haven't been drinking it yourself?" she said.

  "I have also drunk it myself."

  "Brandy," she said. "Eleven empty bottles of brandy and that bear liquid."

  "K�mmel."

  "I will send for some one to take them away. Those are all the empty bottles you have?"

  "For the moment."

  "And I was pitying you having jaundice. Pity is something that is wasted on you."

  "Thank you."

  "I suppose you can't be blamed for not wanting to go back to the front. But I should think you would try something more intelligent than producing jaundice with alcoholism."

  "With what?"

  "With alcoholism. You heard me say it." I did not say anything. "Unless you find something else I'm afraid you will have to go back to the front when you are through with your jaundice. I don't believe self-inflicted jaundice entitles you to a convalescent leave."

  "You don't?"

  "I do not."

  "Have you ever had jaundice, Miss Van Campen?"

  "No, but I have seen a great deal of it."

  "You noticed how the patients enjoyed it?"

  "I suppose it is better than the front."

  "Miss Van Campen," I said, "did you ever know a man who tried to disable himself by kicking himself in the scrotum?"

  Miss Van Campen ignored the actual question. She had to ignore it or leave the room. She was not ready to leave because she had disliked me for a long time and she was now cashing in.

  "I have known many men to escape the front through self-inflicted wounds."

  "That wasn't the question. I have seen self-inflicted wounds also. I asked you if you had ever known a man who had tried to disable himself by kicking himself in the scrotum. Because that is the nearest sensation to jaundice and it is a sensation that I believe few women have ever experienced. That was why I asked you if you had ever had the jaundice, Miss Van Campen, because--" Miss Van Campen left the room. Later Miss Gage came in.

  "What did you say to Van Campen? She was furious."

  "We were comparing sensations. I was going to suggest that she had never experienced childbirth--"

  "You're a fool," Gage said. "She's after your scalp."

  "She has my scalp," I said. "She's lost me my leave and she might try and get me court-martialled. She's mean enough."

  "She never liked you," Gage said. "What's it about?"

  "She says I've drunk myself into jaundice so as not to go back to t
he front."

  "Pooh," said Gage. "I'll swear you've never taken a drink. Everybody will swear you've never taken a drink."

  "She found the bottles."

  "I've told you a hundred times to clear out those bottles. Where are they now?"

  "In the armoire."

  "Have you a suitcase?"

  "No. Put them in that rucksack."

  Miss Gage packed the bottles in the rucksack. "I'll give them to the porter," she said. She started for the door.

  "Just a minute," Miss Van Campen said. "I'll take those bottles." She had the porter with her. "Carry them, please," she said. "I want to show them to the doctor when I make my report."

  She went down the hall. The porter carried the sack. He knew what was in it.

  Nothing happened except that I lost my leave.

  23

  The night I was to return to the front I sent the porter down to hold a seat for me on the train when it came from Turin. The train was to leave at midnight. It was made up at Turin and reached Milan about half-past ten at night and lay in the station until time to leave. You had to be there when it came in, to get a seat. The porter took a friend with him, a machine-gunner on leave who worked in a tailor shop, and was sure that between them they could hold a place. I gave them money for platform tickets and had them take my baggage. There was a big rucksack and two musettes.

  I said good-by at the hospital at about five o'clock and went out. The porter had my baggage in his lodge and I told him I would be at the station a little before midnight. His wife called me "Signorino" and cried. She wiped her eyes and shook hands and then cried again. I patted her on the back and she cried once more. She had done my mending and was a very short dumpy, happy-faced woman with white hair. When she cried her whole face went to pieces. I went down to the corner where there was a wine shop and waited inside looking out the window. It was dark outside and cold and misty. I paid for my coffee and grappa and I watched the people going by in the light from the window. I saw Catherine and knocked on the window. She looked, saw me and smiled, and I went out to meet her. She was wearing a dark blue cape and a soft felt hat. We walked along together, along the sidewalk past the wine shops, then across the market square and up the street and through the archway to the cathedral square. There were streetcar tracks and beyond them was the cathedral. It was white and wet in the mist. We crossed the tram tracks. On our left were the shops, their windows lighted, and the entrance to the galleria. There was a fog in the square and when we came close to the front of the cathedral it was very big and the stone was wet.