Have you ever seen that end of the thing?''
''No.
But I would like to know.''
''Better not know,'' the Colonel said. ''Eat your steak before it gets cold and forgive me for talking about my trade.''
''I hate it but I love it.''
''I believe we share the same emotions,'' the Colonel said. ''But what is my pitted compatriot thinking three tables down?''
''About his next book, or about what it says in Baedeker.''
''Should we go and ride in a gondola in the wind after we have dined?''
''That would be lovely.''
''Should we tell the pitted man that we are going?
I think he has the same pits on his heart and in his soul and maybe in his curiosity.''
''We tell him nothing,'' the girl said. ''The Gran Maestro can convey him any information we wish.''
Then she chewed well and solidly on her steak and said, ''Do you think it is true that men make their own faces after fifty?''
''I hope not.
Because I would not sign for mine.''
''You,'' she said. ''You.''
''Is the steak good?'' the Colonel asked.
''It's wonderful.
How are your scaloppine?''
''Very tender and the sauce is not at all sweet.
Do you like the vegetables?''
''The cauliflower is almost crisp; like celery.''
''We should have some celery.
But I don't think there is any or the Gran Maestro would have brought it.''
''Don't we have fun with food?
Imagine if we could eat together always.''
''I've suggested it.''
''Let's not talk about that.''
''All right,'' the Colonel said. ''I've made a decision too.
I'm going to chuck the army and live in this town, very simply, on my retirement pay.''
''That's wonderful.
How do you look in civilian clothes?''
''You've seen me.''
''I know it, my dear.
I said it for a joke.
You make rough jokes sometimes too, you know.''
''I'll look all right.
That is if you have a tailor here who can cut clothes.''
''There isn't one here, but there is in Rome.
Can we drive together to Rome to get the clothes?''
''Yes.
And we will live outside the town at Viterbo and only go in for the fittings and for dinner in the evening.
Then we'll drive back in the night.''
''Will we see cinema people and speak about them with candour and perhaps not have a drink with them?''
''We'll see them by the thousands.''
''Will we see them being married for the second and third time and then being blessed by the Pope?''
''If you go in for that kind of thing.''
''I don't,'' the girl said. ''That's one reason that I cannot marry you.''
''I see,'' the Colonel said. ''Thank you.''
''But I will love you, whatever that means, and you and I know what it means very well, as long as either of us is alive and after.''