He could live alone
eternally. It was his condition. His sex was functional, like eating and
drinking. To take a woman, a prostitute at the camp, or not to take her,
was no more vitally important than to get drunk or not to get drunk of a
Sunday. And fairly often on Sunday Paolo got drunk. His world remained
unaltered.
But Maria suffered more bitterly. She was a young, powerful, passionate
woman, and she was unsatisfied body and soul. Her soul's satisfaction
became a bodily unsatisfaction. Her blood was heavy, violent, anarchic,
insisting on the equality of the blood in all, and therefore on her own
absolute right to satisfaction.
She took a wine licence for San Gaudenzio, and she sold wine. There were
many scandals about her. Somehow it did not matter very much, outwardly.
The authorities were too divided among themselves to enforce public
opinion. Between the clerical party and the radicals and the socialists,
what canons were left that were absolute? Besides, these wild villages
had always been ungoverned.
Yet Maria suffered. Even she, according to her conviction belonged to
Paolo.
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