They have stayed
behind in the heart of their own firesides; they have only to stoop
to caress their children. We see them beaming in the first
starlights of the street, all these rich folk who are becoming
richer, all these tranquil people whose tranquillity increases every
day, people who are full, you feel. and in spite of all, of an
unconfessable prayer. They all go slowly, by grace of the fine
evening, and settle themselves in perfected homes, or in
cafes where they are waited upon. Couples are forming, too,
young women and young men, civilians or soldiers, with some badge of
their preservation embroidered on their collars. They make haste
into the shadows of security where the others go, where the dawn of
lighted rooms awaits them; they hurry towards the night of rest and
caresses.
And as we pass quite close to a ground-floor window which is half
open, we see the breeze gently inflate the lace curtain and lend it
the light and delicious form of lingerie--and the advancing throng
drives us back, poor strangers that we are!
We wander along the pavement, all through the twilight that begins
to glow with gold--for in towns Night adorns herself with jewels.
The sight of this world has revealed a great truth to us at last,
nor could we avoid it: a Difference which becomes evident between
human beings, a Difference far deeper than that of nations and with
defensive trenches more impregnable; the clean-cut and truly
unpardonable division that there is in a country's inhabitants
between those who gain and those who grieve, those who are required
to sacrifice all, all, to give their numbers and strength and
suffering to the last limit, those upon whom the others walk and
advance, smile and succeed.
Pages:
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380