"Barto, Barto," I said.
He laughed.
"Talk to them, Tenente," he said. "I can't understand them.
Hey!" He put his hand on the girl's thigh and squeezed it in a friendly way.
The girl drew her shawl tight around her and pushed his hand away. "Hey!" he said. "Tell the Tenente your name and what you're doing here."
The girl looked at me fiercely.
The other girl kept her eyes down.
The girl who looked at me said something in a dialect I could not understand a word of.
She was plump and dark and looked about sixteen.
"Sorella?" I asked and pointed at the other girl.
She nodded her head and smiled.
"All right," I said and patted her knee.
I felt her stiffen away when I touched her.
The sister never looked up.
She looked perhaps a year younger.
Aymo put his hand on the elder girl's thigh and she pushed it away.
He laughed at her.
"Good man," he pointed at himself. "Good man," he pointed at me. "Don't you worry."
The girl looked at him fiercely.
The pair of them were like two wild birds.
"What does she ride with me for if she doesn't like me?" Aymo asked. "They got right up in the car the minute I motioned to them." He turned to the girl. "Don't worry," he said. "No danger of --," using the vulgar word. "No place for --." I could see she understood the word and that was all.
Her eyes looked at him very scared.
She pulled the shawl tight. "Car all full," Aymo said. "No danger of ---- . No place for --."
Every time he said the word the girl stiffened a little.
Then sitting stiffly and looking at him she began to cry.
I saw her lips working and then tears came down her plump cheeks.
Her sister, not looking up, took her hand and they sat there together.
The older one, who had been so fierce, began to sob.
"I guess I scared her," Aymo said. "I didn't mean to scare her."
Bartolomeo brought out his knapsack and cut off two pieces of cheese.
"Here," he said. "Stop crying."
The older girl shook her head and still cried, but the younger girl took the cheese and commenced to eat.
After a while the younger girl gave her sister the second piece of cheese and they both ate.
The older sister still sobbed a little.
"She'll be all right after a while," Aymo said.
An idea came to him.
"Virgin?" he asked the girl next to him.
She nodded her head vigorously. "Virgin too?" he pointed to the sister.
Both the girls nodded their heads and the elder said something in dialect.
"That's all right," Bartolomeo said. "That's all right."
Both the girls seemed cheered.
I left them sitting together with Aymo sitting back in the corner and went back to Piani's car.
The column of vehicles did not move but the troops kept passing alongside.
It was still raining hard and I thought some of the stops in the movement of the column might be from cars with wet wiring.
More likely they were from horses or men going to sleep.
Still, traffic could tie up in cities when every one was awake.
It was the combination of horse and motor vehicles.
They did not help each other any.
The peasants' carts did not help much either.
Those were a couple of fine girls with Barto.