The Road To The City by Natalia Ginzburg Page A

him. 
    â€˜Yes,’ he said, laughing. ‘And you are ugly, all right Good-bye. I’m going.’
    â€˜Good-bye,’ I said.
    I found Santa weeping in the kitchen because Vincenzo had told her as he was going away that his family wouldn’t let him marry her because they wanted him to marry a girl with more money. He had promised to marry her all the same, but her mother said that he’d never see it through. My aunt asked me where I had been, and I said, ‘Out for a walk with Nini.’
    â€˜Oh, Nini. He might have spoken to me. I was with his mother when she died.’
    Santa couldn’t eat any supper.
    â€˜You’re a silly girl,’ her mother said. ‘Why be in a hurry to get married? You’ve everything you need here at home. When a girl marries her troubles begin. Her children cry and her husband wants to be waited on and his parents make things all the harder. If you married Vincenzo you’d have to get up bright and early and go and work in the fields, because his people are only peasants. A fine occupation that would be. Girls don’t know what’s good for them. How could you be better off than staying here at home with your mother?’
    â€˜Yes, but later on?’ said Santa, sobbing.
    â€˜What do you mean, later on? When I’m dead? Are you in such a hurry to see me die? I’ll live to be ninety, just to spite you,’ my aunt shouted, hitting Santa over the head with her rosary.
    â€˜With your cousin it’s a different story,’ she went on after a few minutes, while Santa dried her eyes. ‘She had a piece of bad luck. I trust you haven’t played any such tricks on me.’
    â€˜No, no, I swear I haven’t.’
    â€˜Well, I hope not. But she may have set you a bad example and rotted you the way one piece of bad fruit rots another. You have no right to go out with a young man in the state you’re in,’ she added, turning to me. ‘Never mind if you and Nini did grow up together. You can’t expect everybody to know that.’
    I didn’t answer her but gave my attention to Santa.
    â€˜Don’t worry,’ I said to console her. ‘As soon as I’m married I’ll find a husband for you too.’
    â€˜Easy there,’ said my aunt. ‘Don’t start crowing too soon. I’ve heard that your Giulio doesn’t think of marrying you at all and still goes with a young lady in town. Several people have told me who have reason to know. How does it happen that he never comes to see you? Everyone else has come, even that wild Nini, but not he.’
    â€˜He has to study,’ I said.
    â€˜Well, of course, I don’t know about that. They’ve seen him with a young lady, that’s what they tell me. You’re here like a chicken, waiting for him to marry you, and he’s put you quite out of his mind.’
    â€˜That not true,’ I said.
    â€˜Go and ask him if it’s not true, then. Tell him it’s high time to marry you now that he’s ruined your life this way. And if he doesn’t do it soon you’re going to talk. With men you’ve got to carry a big stick. You’ll be in a pretty fix when you’ve a baby in your arms and have to earn a living. Because your father won’t take you back, you can be sure of that.’
    My aunt went away, leaving Santa and me alone.
    â€˜What an unlucky pair we are,’ said Santa, attempting to embrace me and weep on my shoulder. But I didn’t want to have her so near. I ran to the room upstairs and locked the door behind me. I stared into the darkness without crying and thought to myself that Giulio was quite right in not wanting to marry me. I had become downright ugly, even Nini said so, and then I didn’t really care for him anyhow. ‘The best thing I could do would be to die,’ I said to myself, ‘unlucky and stupid creature that I am. I don’t even know what I