OUR FRIEND JUDITH
469
'You ought to understand it, because you're like that yourself.'
'Am
I?'
she said. 'Well think about it,' I said. But I could see
she didn't want to think about it. Anyway, she's here, and I've
spent a week with her. The widow Maria Rineiri inherited her
mother's house, so she came home, from Soho. On the ground
floor
is
a tatty little Rosticcheria patronized by the neighbors.
They are all working people. This isn't tourist country, upon
the hill. The widow lives above the shop with her little boy, a
nasty little brat of about ten. Say what you like, the English
are the only people who know how to bring up children, I
don't care if that's insular. Judith's room
is
at the back, with
a balcony. Underneath her room
is
the barber's shop, and the
barber is Luigi Rineiri, the widow's younger brother. Yes, I
was keeping him until the last. He is about forty, tall dark
handsome, a great
bull,
but rather a sweet fatherly bull. He
has cut Judith's hair and made it lighter. Now it looks like a
sort of gold helmet. Judith is all brown. The widow Rineiri
has made her a white dress and a green dress. They fit, for. a
change. When Judith walks down the street to the lower town,
all
the Italian males take one look at the golden girl and melt
in their own oil like ice cream. Judith takes
all
this in her
stride. She sort of acknowledges the homage. Then she strolls
into the sea and vanishes into the foam. She swims five miles
every day.
Naturally.
I haven't asked Judith whether she has
collected herself, because you can see she hasn't. The widow
Rineiri is match-making. When I noticed this I wanted· to
laugh, but luckily I didn't, because Judith asked me, really
wanting to know, Can you see me married to an Italian barber?
(Not being snobbish, but stating the position, so to speak.)
'Well yes,' I said, 'you're the only woman I know who I can
see married to an Italian barber.' Because it wouldn't matter
who she married, she'd always be her
own person.
'At any
rate, for a time,' I said. At which she said, asperously: 'You
can use phrases like for a time in England but not
in
Italy.'
Did you ever see England, at least London, as the ' home of
