Was it possible that an old man like Barbetta could still get a kick out of sketching girls and studying their anatomy? He was badly bitten, too, she thought.

They left after twelve o’clock and were pleased to find themselves among people again and walk along properly dressed and see the lovely colours in the street which came from the sun – it was undeniable, though they did not know how – since they disappeared at night. Even Amelia’s edginess had vanished and she paid for the apéritif and they dropped the subject of painters.

Ginia’s thoughts turned back to them, alone on her sofa, that afternoon and others as well. Once more she saw Amelia’s swarthy belly in that semi-darkness, that very ordinary face and those drooping breasts. Surely a woman offered a better subject dressed? If painters wanted to do them in the nude, they must have ulterior motives. Why did they not draw from male models? Even Amelia when disgracing herself in that way became a different person; Ginia was almost in tears.

But she mentioned nothing about it to Amelia and was merely glad that the latter was at present earning again, that she was with her once more and was quite keen to accompany her to the cinema. Amelia could now buy herself some stockings and began to take more trouble over her hair. Ginia found it a real pleasure to be going out with her again because Amelia was such a striking figure and many people turned round to have another look at her. Thus the summer drew to a close and one evening Amelia said, ‘Your Barbetta man is going into the country to find his colours and do some harvesting. I was beginning to find him irritating’.

That evening Amelia had produced a new handbag and Ginia remarked, ‘Is that his parting gift?’ ‘Him!’ said Amelia, ‘don’t make me laugh! It’s you he would like to have back so he wouldn’t need to pay’.

Then they quarrelled because Amelia had kept all this back so far and now both of them were so outspoken that they parted on bad terms. ‘So, she’s found a lover’, thought Ginia as she went home alone, ‘she’s found a lover who is giving her presents’. She decided she would only make up their quarrel if Amelia came and begged her to.

Reluctantly and in defence against her boredom, Ginia tried to pick up with her former friends again. After all, by the following summer she would be seventeen and she felt she knew her way around as much as Amelia, the more so now she was out of touch with her. During the evenings, already becoming cold, she tried to put on an Amelia-act with Rosa. She often laughed openly at her and took her for long, chatty walks. She talked to her about Pino, but she had not the nerve to take her to the dance-saloon in the hills.

Amelia had certainly someone in tow; no one ever saw her. ‘As long as a woman has plenty of clothes’, thought Ginia, ‘she can cut a dash. The main thing is not to let herself be seen in the nude’. But she could not discuss that sort of thing either with Rosa or Clara or with their brothers, who would immediately have drawn the worst conclusion and tried to paw her about, and Ginia did not want that; she had realized now that there were better people in the world than Ferruccio or Pino. In the evenings when she was with them, they would dance and joke and chat as well, but Ginia knew that it was no different from the larking round on Sundays when they went in the boat; a light-hearted bit of fun among the lads – the effect of the sun and their singing – when it only needed one of their number to drape a towel round his waist and pretend to be a woman to set them off into fits of laughter. At present, however, the Sunday evenings were a source of irritation because Ginia on her own was unable to make up her mind and let herself be taken along with the others. She found occasional amusement in the shop when the boss required her to do the pinning on a customer’s dress; some of the stories told by the more eccentric customers were so funny. It was still more amusing when her boss affected to believe them quite seriously while all the time the mirrors reflected back the malicious mockery in her face. On one occasion a young blonde arrived who gave the impression of having a car waiting for her, but if she really had, thought Ginia, she would certainly have gone to a better-class dressmaker’s. She was a tall young woman but looked evasive. Ginia considered her handsome, yes, even just in her knickers and brassière she was slim and handsome. She would certainly have made a lovely picture if she had sat for an artist; perhaps she was a model, for she paraded in front of the mirrors with the same deportment as Amelia. The next day Ginia saw the invoice but as it only had her surname on it, she was no wiser. As far as she was concerned the blonde lady continued to be a model. One evening Ginia was invited in by a friend of Severino who came to the house to bring her a lamp. The next day she went to his shop.