Spring: -I- -II- -III-
The Stamp Album: -IV- -V- -VI- -VII- -VIII- -IX- -X- -XI- (XII)
In the Municipal Park: -XIII- -XIV- -XV- -XVI-
Springtime Twilight: -XVII-
The Villa: -XVIII- -XIX- -XX- -XXI- -XXII- -XXIII- -XXIV- -XXV- -XXVI- -XXVII-
Bianka’s Lineage: -XXVIII- -XXIX- -XXX- -XXXI- -XXXII- -XXXIII-
Hiatus: -XXXIV- -XXXV- -XXXVI- -XXXVII-
Finale: -XXXVIII- -XXXIX- -XL-
XII
I WANT to give the reader a sense, albeit approximate, of what that book meant at that time, in whose pages the definitive matters of that spring were prearranged and set down in advance.
An unutterable, disquieting wind blew along the glistening lane of those stamps, along a street decorated with pennants and coats-of-arms, crests and emblems fervently unfurling, waving in the exhausted quietude, in the shadow of clouds looming menacingly over the horizon. And suddenly on the empty street the first heralds appeared, in gala uniforms with red bands on their shoulders, glistening with sweat, bemused and imbued with perplexity and duty. They gave signals in silence, deeply moved and full of solemn earnestness, and now the street was dimmed by the impending march — from every cross street the lanes grew dark in the crunch of a thousand approaching feet. It was an enormous pageant of countries, a universal First of May, a monster-parade of worlds. The world protested with a thousand upraised hands, protested with a thosand flags and pennants, protested with a thousand voices, as if declaring an oath, that it was by no means behind Franz Joseph I, but was behind someone many, many times greater. A bright-red colour, the almost pink, unutterable, liberating colour of enthusiasm was flourished over everything. From San Domingo, San Salvador and Florida came delegations, breathless and hot, all in raspberry suits, and they doffed cherry coloured bowler hats, from which chirruping goldfinches flew out in twos and threes. The glistening wind, in its happy flights, sharpened the glare of the trumpets; it softly and delicately struck the edges of the instruments, shedding quiet comet tails of electricity at every rim. Despite the crowd, despite the thousandfold cortège, everything proceeded in order; the enormous revue progressed systematically and in silence. Moments came when flags, waving avidly and vehemently from the balconies — writhing in amaranthine torsions in the thinning air, in vehement, quiet flutters, futile ascents of enthusiasm — stood motionless as if on parade, and the whole street turned red, glaring and full of a soundless alarum, while a gently muted salute of cannonade was carefully counted off in the darkened distance — forty-nine detonations in the darkening air.
Then the horizon abruptly clouded over, as before a springtime storm, with only the instruments of the orchestra shining brightly, and the murmur of the darkening sky was audible in the stillness, the roar of the distant spaces, as the scent of bird cherry arrived in concentrated batches from the nearby gardens, and was discharged in unutterable propagations.
> -XIII- >