THE MAID'S SHOES
sometimes
sorry
for his nature; but he was what he was and pre:–
ferred to keep himself aloof from what did not closely and personally
concern him.
But Rosa would not have it so. One morning she knocked on
his
study door, and when he said avanti, she went in embarrassedly
so that even before she began to speak he was himself embarrassed.
"Professore," Rosa said, unhappily, "please excuse me for both–
ering your work, but I must speak to somebody."
"I happen to be very busy," he said, growing a little angry.
"Can't
it
wait a while?"
"It will only take a minute. Your troubles stay with you
all
your life, but it doesn't take long to tell them."
"Is it your liver complaint?" he asked.
"No. I need your advice. You are an educated man and I am
a peasant."
"What kind of advice?" he asked impatiently.
"Call it whatever you want. The fact
is
I have to speak to
somebody. I can't talk to my son, even
if
it were possible, in this
case. When I open my mouth he roars like a bull; and my daughter–
in-law
is
not worth my breath. Sometimes when we are on the roof,
hanging wash, I say a few words to the portinaia, but she
is
not a
sympathetic person, so I have come to you."
Before he could say how he felt about hearing her confidences,
Rosa had launched into a story about this middle-aged government
worker-in the tax bureau-whom she had met in the neighborhood.
He was married, had four children, and sometimes worked as a car–
penter after leaving his office at two o'clock each day. His name was
Armando; it was he who called her every afternoon. They had met
recently on a bus, and he had, after two or three meetings, seeing that
her shoes weren't fit to wear, urged her to let him buy her a new
pair. She had told him not to be so foolish. One could see that he had
very little, and it was enough that he took her to the movies twice a
week. She had said that, yet everytime they met he spoke about
the shoes he wanted to buy her.
"I am only human," Rosa frankly told the professor, "and I
need the shoes badly, but you know how these
things
go.
If
I put
on
his
shoes they may carry me to his bed. That's why I thought I
would
ask
you
if
I ought to take them."
