ON THE WAY UP.
The small stone-paved piazza of Monte Nero was crowded with men, women,
and children, gathered together for the yearly pilgrimage of the
Madonna. On one side of the square a flight of stone steps led up to
the door of the church: the heavy leather curtain was rolled up half
its length and fastened back to be out of the way of the coming
procession; and massive wreaths of flowers and fruit swung from cornice
to cornice above the open door. It was too early in the year as yet
for many bright-coloured flowers, but the wreaths were white with the
bloom of the first almond trees that had blossomed, and long rows of
ripe oranges and lemons, threaded like beads upon a cord, were fastened
in festoons about the old gray stones. The gold and softest pinky
white looked very pretty hanging high up in the afternoon sunlight
above the heads of the people.
It wanted a good hour and a half yet to the time appointed for the
procession, and the cafe which stood on the opposite side of the
square, and the open-air booths which clustered about its lower end,
were alike full of eager, laughing, pushing, hungry holiday-making
folk. The most correct place to be recognised in by one's friends was,
doubtless, at one of those small green tables in the shade in front of
the _caffettiere's_; but for that matter there were people enough
everywhere, people all over the place, not to mention the two constant
streams, one ascending and one returning, up and down, the worn old
steps of the church. These were composed for the most part of women,
leading small dressed-up children by the hand. The men were content to
wait outside until the church bell itself should put an indisputable
end to the little friendly glasses of bitter vermouth and the gossip.
They stood about in groups, a sunburned hardy lot of fishermen and
sailors, for the Santissima Madonna of Monte Nero is known to be the
especial friend and patron of seafaring men; the church is crowded with
votive offerings, rude pictures of sinking barks and drowning men, and
always, in the corner, the glorified vision of the Virgin descending
upon the waters to bless and save. The ceilings of some of the side
chapels are completely hidden from view by rows of these
representations.
Monte Nero itself can hardly be said to deserve its name of a mountain,
being nothing in fact but a high grass-grown hill, rising behind the
city of Leghorn and commanding a superb view of the sea. Near the top
the country presents the appearance of a succession of grassy downs,
across which a narrow path takes a short cut from the winding carriage
road to the summit, and at this particular moment Lucia and Italia were
walking hand in hand along this pathway, while Dino followed on the
grass at Italia's side. The old people had remained in the
_carretella_ with Palmira.
'I don't think much of your plan of chartering a ship to get out before
the voyage is half over, children. But do as you like, _ragazzi_, do
as you like. What, you too, Lucia? Nay, I gave you credit for more
sense than that, my woman. You'll not find Sora Catarina here getting
out of a comfortable carriage to walk up a devil of a hill.'
'But Lucia is perfectly right. Some one must go with Italia. It would
not look well if she were to be met walking alone with a young man,'
interposed Sora Catarina very decidedly.
'E--e--h, _buon anima mia_, the scandal would be bigger than the sin.'
Catarina looked at him a little scornfully. 'You were different once;
long ago. I wonder if there is _anything_ that you would really
trouble yourself about now, Andrea?'
'Well, there's my little girl. There isn't much else, I suppose,' said
Drea good-naturedly. 'You know the saying we have, we sailors,--a wide
shoe and a full belly, and take the storms as they come. That's my way
of thinking.'
'Ah,' murmured Catarina, drawing her shawl more closely about her.
They had been young together, these two. Catarina could remember a
time when to be alone with her, as now, would have been the measure of
happiness to the hopeful, ardent young lover whom the slow years had
changed into this weather-beaten old man. To a woman's eyes there is
always an atmosphere of youth left about any man who has made love to
her, no matter how the years have passed since then. And it made no
difference to her secret feeling of reproachfulness that she herself
had perhaps much to answer for in this general lowering of Andrea's
estimate of life. A woman betrays and remembers where a man betrays
and forgets. And at that particular moment faithfulness seemed to
Catarina to sum up all the virtues.
In autumn the morning freshness of the wood lingers late: there is
something of the coolness of the dawn in the pine shadows long after
the fruitful warmth has fallen upon the fields. And in some natures,
growing old, there is left somewhat of this same touch of virginal
freshness and charm. I think it is oftenest the case with women who
have been unhappy in their youth--who have missed the placid midsummer
fruition of content. They bear in their hearts an eternal unsatisfied
belief in the spring.
She looked at Italia and Dino walking away across the sunny grass
slopes: it seemed not so many years since she too had been walking
there, going on the same errand to the same old church. She watched
them with eyes grown bitter with a dreary sense of loss: it was like
watching the mocking phantom of her own youth.
But to them the day seemed lengthening out into uncounted hours of
pleasure. The sky was cloudless. The spring wind blowing over their
faces held a magic of its own. 'Come and walk on the grass, Sora
Lucia. Never mind the path--there is no place in the world like these
downs. The air changes as it blows over the grass; it is like some one
breathing; like a breath that comes and goes,' said Dino, taking off
his hat and turning to face the wind. 'Look at the sea now. How far
it is below us,' said Italia, stopping too and looking back.
'What a sea-bird it is,' he said, meeting her eyes with a smile of
happy confidence. 'What would you do if you had to live inland,
Italia?'
'Oh, I could not do it. I should stifle. I am always thirsty where I
cannot hear the sound of the waves.'
'How can you possibly tell where you may have to live, _figlia mia_?
It is true one does not go away from one's own town if one can help it,
but a girl before she is married is like a bit of thistle-down, who can
tell which way the wind will blow her?' asked Lucia in her subdued
voice. She, too, was dressed for the festa, and her neat black gown
contrasted with the blue and scarlet of the girl's holiday dress, much
in the same fashion as her thin face, with its unvarying look of decent
disappointment, served as a background for the young radiance of the
face by her side. 'How can you tell whom your father will wish you to
marry? It might be some one who came from a long way off,--like Dino's
friend, the Signor Valdez, who lodges in our house. He comes from a
country where they do not speak Italian, for all he looks so like a
Christian.'
'I have not seen old Valdez lately,' Dino began.
If he wished to ask any questions Lucia spared him the trouble.
'He is a kind man that,--the blessed saints reward him,' she said, with
a sudden fervour. 'And to think how long it took us to find it
out,--and the world is hard enough, God knows, without one shutting
one's mouth the days it rains comfits. But, _via!_ we knew he was a
stranger from over sea. What would you? when he said "_buon giorno_"
or "_felicissima notte_" as one passed him on the stairs it was like a
bear growling; it did not sound like real Italian. Many and many a day
have I gone away to my work with the old _nonna_ locked in our room,
and my heart in my mouth, not knowing if it were better to leave her
there, with all the children, and not a soul to go near them in case of
fire. And me never so much as dreaming of asking Signor Pietro to stop
sometimes when he passed the door to give them a look. Ah, he is a
good heart, he is. And, as for his never speaking, well, there's evil
talking enough in the world, God knows! a man can do worse things with
his tongue than keep it quiet. As for those children, they are fairly
bewitched; there's that Beppi, he follows Signor Pietro about like his
shadow. It's Signor Pietro who pays now for his schooling, and such a
bright lad as it is! You should have seen him the other day when
Signor Pietro told him first about his going off on a journey. Nothing
would content the boy but bringing back his geography book from the
school to show the _nonna_ all the places.'
'Does--does Pietro talk of going away, then?' asked Dino, his heart
beating faster.
'See that, now! and you such friends. But I always knew that Signor
Pietro could keep his own counsel. Perhaps it's a way they have over
there in the countries he comes from. Yes, he is going away. To Pisa
first, and then perhaps to Rome. He says he wants a holiday, and no
wonder. _Cose lunghe diventan serpe_,--drag a thing out long enough
and it becomes like a snake. And it's two years or more since he has
had a day's outing from Leghorn.'
They had been sitting down to rest on the short dry turf as she talked,
but now, as they rose to climb the last shoulder of the hill, her sharp
black eyes were turned scrutinisingly upon Italia. She gave some
slight ejaculation of surprise. '_Vergine Santissima_! Italia, you
have lost your ring--your beautiful ring. What a misfortune! Madonna
_mia_, what a misfortune!
Italia blushed scarlet. 'No, I have not lost it. I did not put it
on,' she answered hurriedly. And then, after a moment's consideration,
'Old things are best,' she said in her sweet full voice; 'I did not
want a new gift,--I told my father I did not want it. He will keep it
for me, he will give it to me to wear when I am married.'
'And you will wear it that day, my Italia?' asked Dino, looking at her
and speaking in a very low tone, yielding yet this once more to the
perilous delight of saying what he would have said, what he would have
had the right to say, if only he could have hoped to escape from all
the consequences of his past actions. The instinctive conviction that
this proposed journey of Valdez's was in some way connected with the
disposal of his own future gave Dino a still more intense longing to
grasp at present happiness. He knew that he was acting ungenerously;
yet, as the girl turned her face shyly towards him,--her red silk
handkerchief tied about her head in peasant fashion made a soft shade
about her temples and her little ears, coming down in front in a bright
silken fold across her low forehead, hiding all her hair, and giving an
almost Oriental look to the dark straight eyebrows and the dark
lustrous eyes. The wind and the sun had brought a soft pink colour
into her pale oval-shaped cheeks.
She was really looking very beautiful as she said, 'Why make plans for
the future, my Dino? Surely we are very happy; we do not want things
to change. The old things _are_ the best. Why, even this pilgrimage
to-day,--one would always care to come, of course, just to show the
Holy Mother that one is grateful,--but it would be so different, it
would be so sad, if we were to forget the other years that went before.
This is the happiest year of them all, I know, yet I should not like
not to have the memory of the times we have been here as little
children. I like the old gate there at the top because that is the
spot where we have always waited; I could open it myself quite easily,
but I like to remember the days when it seemed to me wonderful that you
could unfasten the lock. It is like that picture of my father's
shipwreck,--you know, Dino,--the _ex voto_ up there in the chapel.
When I was a child I believed it had all happened exactly like that.
Now I know it was painted by a man who has never even seen my father,
but it makes no difference. I could never care for a fine new picture
as I do for the old one.'
'_Anima mia!_' said Dino passionately, bending a little towards her, as
she stood, leaning with folded hands against the old wooden gate. When
she ceased speaking there was something almost childlike in the serene
unconcern of her face. But there was nothing hard, nothing
self-engrossed, in this _insouciance_ of Italia's. It was merely the
expression of a nature accustomed to a large and frank acceptance of
daily life--a genuine indifference to petty devices. This fisherman's
daughter, in her little cotton frock, had something in her of the
wide-eyed serenity of an elder world; she had inherited from her father
something of his cordial simplicity--'a princely disregard of little
things.'
It was only a minute or so before the _carretella_ overtook them by the
gate: they all entered the crowded piazza together.
The three women hurried away to look after the room which had been
promised them for their night's lodging, but only a very few minutes
were past before they too were back in the piazza, for now the bells,
which had been silent all afternoon, were pealing together with a short
and merry stroke. The procession was about to begin.
Inside the dusky church there was an unwonted shuffling of little feet;
a wavering of lights clutched by uncertain little hands; an anxious
movement to and fro of black-robed _frati_, marshalling and adjusting
the unruly lines of brown and flaxen heads. It was the children's part
of the procession; and more than one woman in the crowd felt her heart
swell and her eyes grow moist as she watched them, _poveri angeli_! A
long broken line of small human creatures, in brightest holiday dress,
and each with its burning taper, following the great golden Cross as it
passed solemnly, borne on men's shoulders, out of the gloomy aisles,
out under the wreaths of spring blossom, and down the steps into the
warm afternoon light. That was perhaps the prettiest sight of all, as
the twinkling tapers grew dim in the sunshine. And then came rows of
young white-robed choristers, and the impassive faces of the
officiating priests; the low sunlight burned like a jewel upon the
tinselled stoles, and the reds and purples of the vestments were vivid
and deep like the colour of garden flowers. The blue cloud of incense
rose straight up, with scarcely a waver above the bent heads of the
kneeling crowd, as the Blessed Sacrament was slowly carried around the
piazza. The afternoon was windless, and the people so hushed, that
even from the farther side of the square the priests' solemn chanting
was distinctly audible, and the warning tinkle of the bell.
The last to descend the steps were a white-robed company of Brethren of
the Miserecordia, with masked faces and hands hidden away under the
long folds of their garments. They passed like a little company of the
sheeted and forgotten dead, between the gay ranks of the
holiday-makers; and, as they emerged from the shadows, the bells rang
joyously overhead, a peal which set them rocking from side to side, in
a visible triumph, in the old open belfry.
This was a sign that the procession was ended. There was an instant
rush for the now empty church; there was just time to visit the holy
pictures before supper, and if one had any especial prayer to offer,
why, it was but natural to expect a little prompter attention from the
saints, who might easily be supposed to be still looking down
approvingly upon what was going on in their honour.
Drea and his party were among the first to re-enter the shadowy portal.
There was scarcely light enough now in the side chapels to distinguish
any unfamiliar object, but the old fisherman walked straight to where
his own _ex voto_ offering had hung these many years.
'Ah! that was a night, if you like; that was a night to remember!'
'Were you frightened, father?' said Italia, speaking in a whisper, not
to disturb the people kneeling all about them, and asking the same
question she had asked in this same place, at every recurring festa of
the Blessed Madonna, since the first time she had been brought there, a
small wide-eyed creature clinging to her father's hand.
'Nay, child, nay. It 'ud be a poor business if one's courage did not
hold fast in the right place. It 'ud be like fastening one's boat up
with a rotten cable, there'd be no depending upon anything then. But
it was a night, that. A man who doesn't live at sea doesn't know the
meaning of a prayer. Not that we had much time for speaking; but it
seemed to come natural to think of the Holy Virgin then,--just as I
thought of you, sleeping in your little bed.'
He looked at the picture again. 'Ay. We brought off the men and a
fine bit of salvage; I mind me how pleased the old master was when I
went up to the Villa to tell him about it. He was in his bed, I
remember, and he wore a thing with a frill round his face, like a
woman's night-cap. He was finely pleased. Everybody used to say he
was going to leave me something in his will--something over and above
my wages--as a sort of thank you. Your mother used to count upon it,
poor soul! and so did I for a bit--I should have taken it kindly of the
old master, I should, if he had remembered it at the last. We knew
each other many a year.'
Dino and Italia exchanged a meaning glance.
'And if it were to come now, father? that would be better still; you
could get a new boat,' she said, with a smile of irrepressible pleasure.
'Nay, child, the will was proven long ago. If there was ever any money
coming to me--and the old master used to say there was, he used to say
so--it stuck in the lawyers' hands years ago, like a boat aground. It
never made any difference in my way o' remembering the old master. It
would be but a poor look-out if one could serve the same master
faithfully for twenty years--and I so used to him, knowing just what he
meant when he swore the loudest--it 'ud be but a poor look-out if it
only meant losing one's liking at the end of it. 'Tis a weak
friendship that's so ready to call for the blessed sacraments at the
first little knock on the head;--that's my way o' thinking.'
It was growing dusk, outside as well as in when they left the dim
church, with its smell of fresh crushed bay-leaves underfoot mingling
with the stale incense smoke, in a way which always carried Dino's
memory back to very early days, when his father was still a trifle
undecided about the exact relations of Church and State, and not
unwilling to give his little boy the treat of staring at the lighted
candles of the festa. The remembrance of his dead father's face rose
vividly before him, and he lingered for an instant behind the others at
the door, looking back.
As he hurried on to rejoin Italia old Drea touched him on the shoulder.
'The women will go to bed early, but I want you to come out a bit with
me after supper, lad. I want to have a talk with you,' he said.