Connecticut western news., 1893-06-08
A FAMILY FEUD.

Those two rival families repeated ona small scale the discords of the Mon-S tagues and Capulets, only with due re- gard to the civilization of the times, in- stead of spilling 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 question of trihes-a stream of water that had taken 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 valuable inheri- tance, those quarrels to their sons. 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 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 Pasquai 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 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, superintended, established, registered in the household comings and goings; pro tected by grumbling grandfathers and by priestly uncles; loves without nerves, without tears, without tendernesses and fancies; something extremely calm and slow-the specialization of love. But Carlo Pasquali had had the incompara- ble 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 furtive glance; softly murmured word, yet heard with singular perception by her who should hear it; carnation pink fallen from a balcony by reason of the wind of course; a sudden pallor of his. sudden blush of hers; then, by the armed intervention of a rogue of a ffteen-year-old girl who D linen and the course of true love at the same time-a note and brief reply; little letter, 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 paternal 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.
 Rebuffs. exhortations, prohibitions, difficulties availed only to infame their love. At night, in the winter, Maria arose, dressed herself, wrapped herself in a shawl, and in slippers. with bated breath, trembling for fear, descended the stairs to a window of the first floor; the young friend was in the street, lean l ing against the wall So they talked for two or three hours without caring for the cold, the rain or the loss of sleep: they talked without seeing each other, from distance of five meters of alti- tude, becoming silent at every sound of passer, then cautiously resuming their discourse, with the continual fear that Maria's parents might arouse and find her in that aerial colloquy.
 But what did it all matter to them? They had within their hearts sunshine
 light, springtime, courage, enthusiasm. If the king had come they would not have moved. Instead, the brother of Maria, one night when he could not sleep, arose from his bed and found the door ajar, went down the stairs, heard murmur, snd caught his sister in the act He unceremoniously barred the
 shutters in the face of Carlo, gave Maria
 Q resounding box on the ear, and brought
 her to her room. Next morning the
 small window on the first floor was
 walled up. ..
 Oh, all ye faithful lovers, who grieve
 amid the pains of thwarted love, imagine
 the despair of those two! Their letters
 were no longer legible, for tears plotted
 the words; rows of exclamation points
 that looked like Prussian soldiers under
 arms, followed the daily imprecations
 against fortune, destiny, fate and other
 impersonal beings incapable of resenting
 them: thousand fantastic plans were
 created and then rejected. Carlo would
 have liked to elope with Maria but his
 father allowed him no money, and ii would have been difficult to put together the nine lire and fifty centesimi for two
 tickets for the journey to Naples; they thought for 8 moment of suicide, but
 found that it would not solve the diff culty. Then, in the long run, their love ] became systematic, the imprecations were always the same, and they could
 not go to their beds without having poured forth upon the faithful paper the fullness of their grief"
 In the town nothing was talked of bu their unshakahle love and their tOrments