''Please don't,'' she said. ''Please, please, don't.
You know I made the resolution not to cry.''
''You're crying now,'' the Colonel said. ''What the hell have you got to lose on that resolution?''
''Take me home please.''
''That's what I was doing in the first place,'' the Colonel told her.
''Be kind once first.''
''I will,'' the Colonel said.
After they, or the Colonel, rather, had paid the gondoliere who was unknowing, yet knowing all, solid, sound, respectful and trustworthy, they walked into the Piazzetta and then across the great, cold, wind-swept square that was hard and old under their feet.
They walked holding close and hard in their sorrow and their happiness.
''This is the place where the German shot the pigeons,'' the girl said.
''We probably killed him,'' the Colonel said. ''Or his brother.
Maybe we hanged him.
I wouldn't know.
I'm not in C.I.D.''
''Do you love me still on these water-worn, cold and old stones?''
''Yes.
I'd like to spread a bed roll here and prove it.''
''That would be more barbarous than the pigeon shooter.''
''I'm barbarous,'' the Colonel said.
''Not always.''
''Thank you for the not always.''
''We turn here.''
''I think I know that.
When are they going to tear that damned Cinema Palace down and put up a real cathedral?
That's what T5 Jackson wants.''
''When some one brings Saint Mark back another time under a load of pork from Alexandria.''
''That was a Torcello boy.''
''You're a Torcello boy.''
''Yes.
I'm a Basso Piave boy and a Grappa boy straight here from Pertica.
I'm a Pasubio boy, too, if you know what that means. It was worse just to live there than to fight anywhere else.
In the platoon they used to share anyone's gonochochi brought from Schio and carried in a matchbox.
They used to share this just so they could leave because it was intolerable.''
''But you stayed.''
''Sure,'' the Colonel said. ''I'm always the last man to leave the party, fiesta I mean, not as in political party.
The truly unpopular guest.''
''Should we go?''
''I thought you had made up your mind.''
''I had.
But when you said it about unpopular guest it was unmade.''
''Keep it made up.''
''I can hold a decision.''
''I know.
You can hold any damn thing.
But, Daughter, sometimes you don't just hold.
That is for stupids.
Sometimes you have to switch fast.''
''I'll switch if you like.''
''No.
I think the decision was sound.''