MARS
511
gratified her with the sweet pangs of longed-for punishment. But
suddenly, before she could reflect any further, the thought of the
soldiers came back to her, driving her on to other work. She left the
little parlor, submerged beneath its vine wreaths like an unfulfilled
promise.
She was her usual self this morning as she awaited the arrival
of the guests, but her husband, wakening suddenly, rushed down–
stairs, unshaven, shouting commands through the house that were
outdated or meaningless because contradictory orders had long since
been carried out.
The riders dismounted at the stables, with stains on their yellow
gaiters from having rashly ridden in from the highway, for water
was standing everywhere in puddles covered with straw, dung and
stray bits of chicken-feed, reflecting the brilliant sky. The wind from
the south burned the soldiers' cheeks and made them sleepy. High–
pitched voices slashed across the yard with their sharp accents, now
blending their noise, now outshouting one another. Even a foreign
ear could understand that the purpose of each was to secure the
roomiest stall for his own horse and to spur on the Tunisian orderlies.
The turmoil of mustard-colored uniforms swirling among sweaty
horses' bodies seemed completely aimless, as though it could never
find an outlet-but on closer inspection it became obvious that even
these manly warriors found a natural pleasure in choosing quarters
and swaggering about. And what may have looked like delay, anger
or confusion was only due to the hot blood of these boys who had
had their first smell of bridle and powder.
They were everywhere at once, some crowding around the host,
changing money, demanding a bath or running up to their rooms,
never ceasing to babble, filling the rooms with noise and laughter
and taking possession of them in an indefinable way by a few dex–
terous rearrangements. Others clamored for a hot breakfast. Johanna
carried an apronful of eggs to the kitchen where great slabs of
harn were frying in blazing fat; the crowd of colored orderlies followed
her, loading their slices of white bread with runny jams that dribbled
from their childish hands and white teeth. In the yard servants
brought armfuls of hay to feed the horses which neighed and knocked
the stall boards with their hooves till they boomed. The dog of the
