The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1892-12-17
A FAMILY FEUD.

Those two rival families repeated on a
small scale the discords of the Mon
tagues and Capulets, only, with due re-
gard to the civilization of the times, in
stead of splitting blood, they spilled
money. Instead Of dead relatives, there
had been many lawsuits, long and en-
tangled; they went to law for spite, for
resentment, for anger: they kept at law
with that obstinate delight in litigation
which is one of the joys Of provincial
life. AS usual it was a question of
trifes-a stream of water that had taken
a wrong direction; an unruly goat that
had leaped from the field of one into the
field of the other: some obscure and
stupid potatoes which, spreading them
selves underground, had disregarded the
boundaries.
Upon this showered legal documents.
The lawyers toiled to write in that style
of theirs-the last relic Of barbarous in
vasions; judgments were multiplied;
lawsuits grew complicated. The two
advocates rubbed their hands for JOY,
and from the aspect of things were sure
of transmitting, as a valuable inheri-
lance, those quarrels to their son How
the enmity between Pasquali and the
Dericca families had been caused could
not be clearly learned; affirmation va
ried on one and the other side. But it
was a deep and declared enmity.
Being neighbors in town and in the
country they frequently met, looking
askance at each other; the women
heard mass in two different churches; if
the Dericca girls wore blue gowns the
Pasquali girls at once put on pink ones;
in the municipal council the Pasquali
were always conservative and the
Dericca, naturally, radical; that which
one did the other would not do for a
thousand scudi; where one went the
other did not appear. And then gossip,
evil speaking, complaints, eagerness for
scandal, malignity;in short, all that out
fit of pleasing things which take place
in provincial towns between two rival
families. On the top of all this Carlo, the
eldest son of the Pasquali, and Maria,
the second daughter of the Dericca,
thought it best to fall in love with each
other.
Love in a small town has not much
variety. Usually it begins in childhood,
continues amid games of blindman's
buff, is apt to manifest itself in social
dancing parties and round games and is
always ratified by the parish priest and
the mayor. These loves are recognized,
superintendent, established, registered in
the household comings and goings; pro-
tected by grumbling grandfathers and
by priestly u%ncles; loves without nerves,
without tears, without tendernesses and
fancies; something extremely calm and
slow-the Capitalization of love. But
Carlo Pasquali had had the incompara-
BILE fortune to pass, once, a fortnight at
Naples, which made him look with scorn
upon provincial customs; and Maria
Dericca at night, by feeble lamp,
had wept over the hapless heroines
of Mastriani, and had envied them in
their fantastic passions; therefore for
these two was required an exceptional
love. First it was a furtive glance; a
softly murmured word, yet heard with
singular perception by her who should
hear it; a carnation pink fallen from a
balcony by reason of the wind Of course;
a sudden pallor Of his, a sudden blush
of hers; then, by the armed intervention
of a rogue of a fifteen year-old girl who
came with a fiatiron to smooth Maria's
linen and the course Of true love at the
same time-a note and a brief reply; a
little letter, a long letter, and finally
those voluminous epistles of eight or ten
sheets of note paper which mark the
highest point of the folly of love.
Alasl The joy of the young people
was brief, and sorrow rapidly arrived to
destroy it. They were seen, spied, the
news reached their respective papas, and
all the thunderbolts Of p%aternal wrath,
imbittered by eleven lawsuits, fell upon
the heads of the poor lovers. The bal
cony windows were closed, the bolts
were fastened on the terrace doors, the
~carnation pinks on the bush were count
ed, walks were forbidden, or at least
made without previous notice, the hour
Of going to mass varied each Sunday
but those two continued to love each
other.