Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall — Read

Everyone was anxious to be kind to Maddalena, and yet Maddalena was lonely. It was almost as though Gian-Luca's loneliness in leaving him had found harborage in her, as though she had drawn it into herself, so that now she must bear it for him. Rosa came very often to see her and would talk of the infant Gian-Luca, telling of the time when he clung to her breast, telling of the day when he first said "Nonno," and this made Maddalena feel lonelier than ever. Rosa was very maternal that autumn, for her Geppe had gone to do his military service; all the way to Italy he had gone -- Geppe, who had seldom even been out of London. In the end he had actually wanted to go, glad of anything for the sake of a change, but Rosa was anxious because of those hands of his, which so easily blistered. The life would be hard, they might set him to digging, they might teach him how to dig trenches -- two years he must serve in an infantry regiment. Poor Geppe, the life would be hard. Berta, whose heart had been caught on the rebound, wished to marry a young man called Albert Cole, the commercial traveler whom Geppe had once met and had longed to emulate. Nerone had disliked Albert Cole at sight -- he had the misfortune to be English -- Nerone was rude whenever he called, so Berta had decided to marry him at once; they were going to be married next month. And here Rosa's eyes welled over with tears, for Cole called himself an agnostic.

"I do not know what that means," she said helplessly. "It cannot be anything to do with Saint Agnes, for he does not believe in the saints, and my Berta wishes to give up her Church; they will marry at a register office."