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poverty. How could anyone wonder at her hoping for an entirely different life for her daughter? I ought to say, perhaps, that they were not so much cut-and-dried plans as vague, scintillating dreams, which could be cherished without much remorse because of their very brilliance and vagueness. But that is only my own idea; and perhaps, instead, Mother really had reached the decision, through the lifelong dulling of her conscience, of setting me one day on the path that later I was in any case destined to follow on my own account. I do not say this out of spite toward my mother, but because I still do not quite understand what was in her mind at that moment, and experience has taught me that the most contradictory things may be thought and felt at one and the same moment, without one noticing the contradiction or choosing one in preference to another.
    She had vowed that she did not want to meet him and for some time I respected her wish. But after Gino had kissed me the first few times, he seemed anxious to have everything open and aboveboard,as he put it; and every day he insisted that I ought to introduce him to my mother. I did not dare tell him Mother did not want to know him because she thought his employment too humble, so I tried to postpone the meeting with various excuses. At last Gino realized I was concealing something from him, and he pressed me so much that I was obliged to tell him the truth.
    “Mother doesn’t want to meet you because she says I ought to marry a gentleman and not a chauffeur.”
    We were in the car in the usual suburban avenue. He looked at me sadly and heaved a sigh. I was so infatuated with him that I did not notice how contrived his sorrow really was.
    “That’s what comes of being poor,” he exclaimed pointedly, and was silent for some time.
    “Do you mind?” I asked him at last.
    “I’m humiliated,” he replied, shaking his head. “Any other man in my place would never have asked to meet her, would never have mentioned an engagement — that’s what you get for trying to do the right thing.”
    “Why worry?” I said. “I love you — that’s all that matters.”
    “I ought to have come with my pockets full of money but no talk of engagement, of course! And then your mother would have been delighted to welcome me.”
    I did not dare to contradict him, because I knew that what he was saying was absolutely true.
    “Do you know what we’ll do?” I said after a while. “One day I’ll take you along and we’ll surprise her. She’ll have to meet you, then. She can’t shut her eyes.”
    We arranged a day and, in the evening as we had agreed, I took Gino into the living room. Mother had just finished her work and was clearing the end of the table in order to lay the cloth.
    “This is Gino, Mother,” I said as I led him in.
    I had expected a scene and had put Gino on his guard. But to my surprise Mother said shortly, “Glad to meet you,” glancing at him sideways. Then she left the room.
    “You’ll see, it’ll be all right,” I said to Gino. I went close to him and putting my face up said, “Give me a kiss.”
    “No, no,” he replied in a low voice as he pushed me off, “Your mother would be right in thinking badly of me.”
    He always knew how to say the appropriate words in any situation, and always said them at the right moment. I could not help admitting to myself that he was right. Mother returned and spoke without looking at Gino.
    “There’s only enough food for the two of us, really — you didn’t tell me. I’ll go out and —”
    She did not finish what she was saying. Gino stepped forward and interrupted her.
    “For heaven’s sake! I didn’t come here to invite myself to supper. Let me invite the two of you, you and Adriana.”
    He spoke politely like an educated person. Mother was unaccustomed to being talked to in that way and to being invited out, and for a moment she hesitated and stood looking at me.
    “As far as I’m concerned, if Adriana