A QUEEN--AND OTHER SIGHTS
Irma was descending the Spanish Steps one morning on her way to the
piazza when she heard Marion calling her. Turning her head, she saw him
hastening toward her.
"What's your hurry?" he cried.
"I can't hurry going down these steps. I am on my way to return a book
for Aunt Caroline. Then----"
"Well, what then?"
"I haven't decided."
"Then come with me to Rag Fair, and after that I have something else for
the afternoon. Aunt Caroline says she won't try to go out to-day, her
cold is worse and Uncle Jim intends to stay in to read to her, and I,
well, she said I must look out for you."
Marion said the last a trifle sheepishly, adding, "Of course I will do
whatever you wish. But I am sure you will like my plan."
"Yes, provided you haven't the Catacombs in mind, or that awful church
with bones and skulls for decorations."
"The Cappuccini; no, we won't go there."
"And you won't ask me to ride around Aurelian's wall on a bicycle?"
"No, though you'd find it great fun! I don't know anything I have
enjoyed better. The towers are so picturesque and they were useful, too.
I went up in one to see the little rooms inside the walls that the
soldiers occupied, and the guard-rooms, up there more than forty feet.
They certainly had a good chance to see the enemy at a long distance. If
you and Aunt Caroline would drive some day, I'd point things out to
you."
"Perhaps we will, but now--" Irma had taken out her camera. "Oh, I wish
I could get a photograph, but I suppose they will run when they see what
I want."
"They" made a picturesque group, slowly mounting the steps, a mother
with babe in arms, a shawl thrown over her head, a half-grown girl in a
faded pink gingham, and a little boy in a shabby velveteen suit and felt
hat with a feather over his curls.
[Illustration: NEAR LA TRINITA, ROME.]
[Illustration: ROME. A GROUP ON SPANISH STEPS.]
"The boy is probably an artist's model, dressed for effect. I am not
sure about the others, but I can make them stand for you."
"Oh! Please!" Whereupon Marion stepped up to the woman, spoke a few
words in Italian, and lo, they at once grouped themselves picturesquely
in a spot where the sun fell in just the right way for a photograph.
Irma took her place, snapped her camera, turned the key, took a second
snap, in case anything should go wrong with the first and murmured,
"_Grazie, grazie_," one of her few Italian words.
"_Niente, niente, signorina_," said the girl, who seemed to be the
spokesman of the party, looking inquiringly at Marion.
Then almost instantly Marion dropped a small piece of silver in her
hand.
"That's the way to get them to stand," he said laughing; "generally the
smallest copper will fetch them."
"But you gave more."
"Oh, this was a group of four. I have noticed that little chap before,
selling flowers. He's very amusing."
Soon Irma had returned her library book, and by various short cuts
Marion led her to the Palazzo Cancelleria, near which the so-called Rag
Fair is held every Wednesday.
They found a series of canvas booths, where a great variety of things
was displayed. The sellers, more numerous than the buyers, praised their
wares at the tops of their voices, if Irma or Marion even glanced toward
them.
"I should call it a rummage sale, and things are rather rubbishy," said
Irma.
At this moment a man thrust a pair of silver-mounted opera glasses in
Marion's face, naming a ridiculously low price. With some difficulty,
Marion shook him off. "Nothing would induce me to buy them."
"But they seemed very cheap."
"Yes, but that's the reason. I believe they were stolen."
"Oh, but would the police allow it?"
"Not if they knew it, but these people keep such things hidden. Perhaps
other goods are stolen, too. There are some pretty things here."
"Aunt Caroline might find some old lace or embroidery that she'd like,
but for my own part I am disappointed. However, we've seen the Rag Fair,
and we can cross that off our list of sights."
Leaving the Fair and the voluble merchants, after a walk of a block or
two Marion suggested that they go home by trolley. This pleased Irma,
who had not yet ridden in the Roman cars.
When the conductor came for their fare, Marion gave a cry of surprise.
"What is it?" asked Irma.
"Well, it's worse than ridiculous. I have lost my purse. My last small
piece of money was the silver bit I gave to the girl on the Spanish
Steps. I know I had my purse then."
While they were talking Irma put her own little purse in Marion's hand,
and he paid their fare.
"Let us go back to the Rag Fair," she said. "Some one there must have
taken it. You know how they were jostling us."
"There'd be no good in going back. The person who took it would hardly
return it. Besides there wasn't much in it, not more than two hundred
_liri_."
"Two hundred _liri_, forty dollars." Irma rapidly transferred the sum to
American money. Why, that was more than she had brought from home as
extra spending money and for little gifts, and Marion could say it was
nothing.
"It is worth trying to find," she suggested mildly.
"If there was any chance of finding it, but we'd only waste time. It's
too near luncheon, and I'm anxious to carry out my afternoon plan."
"How strange Marion is!" thought Irma. "It doesn't disturb him in the
least to lose money, and yet some little thing that no one can account
for will give him a fit of blues for two or three days."
At three in the afternoon Irma came down to the hotel office, looking
cool and comfortable in her simple pongee suit.
"I am awfully curious," she said, as Marion helped her into the
carriage. "Aunt Caroline says she knows where we're going, but she
wouldn't spoil your fun."
Marion only smiled, as he directed the coachman, "To the Villa Corsini,"
and the words conveyed little to Irma, beyond the fact that a villa was
Italian for "park" and not for "country house," as in English. After a
quarter of an hour through a part of Rome she did not know, at last they
came to some rather poor streets, where people were lounging about their
doors as if expecting something.
"I suppose they're not turning out just to see us pass."
"Who knows? Perhaps they have heard that we are distinguished American
visitors."
Soon they turned in toward a park, before whose gate stood a number of
carriages and automobiles.
"We shall be here an hour," said Marion in Italian, and the driver bowed
comprehendingly.
Showing their tickets, they went up a broad avenue past fine trees and
occasional flower-beds. "It's a garden party for some kind of a
charity," Marion explained, "and I thought it would be fun to see some
of the princesses and marchionesses who are running it. There was a long
list of them in the newspapers yesterday."
"Yes, it will be fun," responded Irma, really surprised that Marion
should willingly waste an hour on what might be called a society affair.
That wasn't the way with most boys, and from what she had seen of
Marion, she had not thought him fond of society.
Soon they came in sight of a long table, where many men and women were
drinking and serving tea. Near it was a large marquee into which they
looked as they passed, with a table handsomely spread and decorated with
flowers and bright streamers. At one end of the apartment several
handsome chairs were placed.
"Some special guest must be coming," said Irma, "but the lawn is good
enough for me. Let us go toward those chairs under the trees." For a
minute or two they watched the gay scene at the long table.
"It is evidently a family affair," said Marion. "Every one seems to know
every one else. Those men are not bad looking, for Italians," he
concluded.
"Many of the ladies are beautiful," responded Irma, "and what lovely
gowns! I suppose they are in the height of fashion, but I should think
they'd hate to trail them over the ground."
Presently a most attractive lady, whom Irma had especially noticed,
approached them.
"Will you have your tea now?" she asked in English, with the slightest
accent that showed it was not her native language.
"I will have it sent you at once," she continued, "and some cakes."
Without waiting for a reply, in a moment she had returned to the table,
from which a young girl soon came bringing a tray with cups of tea and a
plate of tiny cakes.
"Yes, she is expected at once," the young girl replied to some question
of Marion's that Irma had not heard.
"The Queen, the Queen Margherita," cried Irma. "You are expecting to see
the Queen."
"You are a good guesser," retorted Marion. "For when I read that
Margherita had promised to attend this fete I thought it would be fun
for you to come. I know your friend Gertrude has been anxious to have
you see her, and there may not be another chance unless you should make
up your mind to ask an audience."
"Hardly," replied Irma smiling, "and I do hope she will come."
Before the two had finished their tea, the groups at the large table
moved forward, forming a semicircle near the marquee. The other
strangers, who like themselves were at little tables under the trees,
rose and moved toward the crowd. In a few minutes a little group came up
the avenue from the gate. Irma's whole attention was fastened on the
gracious lady in the centre, who leaned a trifle on her parasol handle,
as she bowed to those who greeted her on each side.
"I should know her anywhere," cried Irma; "her face is as sweet as in
the photographs I have seen. Look, they are kissing her hand."
Margherita paused a moment, as if to take in the whole scene before her.
Irma noticed that although she was scarcely above middle height, in her
soft black gown and wide black hat she had an air of grace and elegance
that would have distinguished her, even among those who did not know
that she was the widow of King Humberto.
"How pleased Gertrude will be that I have seen her!" she exclaimed, as
Queen Margherita entered the marquee, attended by a number of those who
had been in attendance upon the tables, "and it is all owing to you,"
she added, turning to thank Marion for his thoughtfulness. "As King
Victor Emanuel and Queen Elena have gone to their country place, we are
not likely to see any other royalties in Italy. But _now_ I can write
home that I have seen Queen Margherita."
A little later, as Irma and Marion passed the marquee on their way to
the carriage, they paused to glance within, where Margherita sat,
talking with much animation, the centre of a circle of ladies.
"Well, young people," said Uncle Jim at dinner that evening, "you have
had a giddy day, with rag fairs and fetes and things of that kind.
To-morrow we return to hard, earnest sightseeing, the Borgia apartments
at the Vatican and the Vatican Library. Your aunt wishes you to go while
her cold lasts, so she has a reasonable excuse for not travelling the
several miles necessary to see these things."
"Fortunately I am strong," said Marion, "and Irma seems equal to any
amount of walking."
"I'm not sure," Irma protested, "that I wish to see more in the Vatican.
I enjoyed the sculptures the other day, and the paintings in Raphael's
Stanze. Perhaps I am wrong, but I would almost like to leave Rome
without seeing the rest of the Pope's palace. Just now I recall clearly
all the frescoes: the School of Athens and the Borgo, and Parnassus and
the others, and then the Ascension in the gallery, with that wonderful
yellowish light. I am contented to remember nothing else of the
Vatican."
"Oh, that will never do, the largest palace in the world, with a
thousand different apartments, covering thirteen and a half acres, and
you wish to remember it by a few frescoes and one large painting!"
"The greatest frescoes in the world. I've heard you say that yourself."
"Oh, yes, but the treasures of the Vatican are all great, and you must
have a chance to judge between what you've seen of Raphael and what you
will see of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Those popes of the
Middle Ages were wise in their day, especially after Nicholas V, in
1450, who decided to make the Vatican the most imposing palace in the
world by bringing under one roof all the papal offices. Since then the
building has been constantly enlarged and improved. But now only a small
part is occupied by the Papal Court. Certain days and hours most of the
Vatican treasures are shown to visitors. If you could spend all your
time there for a week, you would not have seen half."
Next day Uncle Jim decided not to go with the young people to the
Vatican, and so again Marion was Irma's guide.
"I am less afraid of the Swiss guards than I was the first day," said
Irma, as they passed the Pope's soldiers in their brilliant red and
yellow uniforms, on their way to the Scala Regia.
"Oh," responded Marion, "they wouldn't dare touch a visitor. Just wait
a moment, I've forgotten exactly where we go first."
So they waited, while Marion turned the leaves of his guidebook, and
then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and heard in Italian a very
positive "Move on." He looked into the frowning face of a Swiss guard,
and without further ado he moved rapidly up the broad staircase.
"There," said Irma, when out of hearing of the soldiers. "What did I
tell you? They might have done something terrible. You know we are not
in Italy now. The Vatican is the Pope's country."
"And the Pope is one of the best-hearted men in the world. Why, actually
you are trembling! I suppose they have rules to keep people moving, but
they wouldn't dare harm an American."
Irma, however, was disturbed by this incident, and was not sorry a few
minutes later to find herself one of several in an anteroom waiting the
guide to take them through the library.
"A library!" she exclaimed, when they had entered the vast hall, "but
where are the books?"
"In these glass cases--listen to the guide."
Not until the end of their tour of the great hall did they learn that
the library, in the ordinary sense of books and manuscripts available
for students, was not open to ordinary visitors. The so-called library
through which the guide led them was high vaulted, and more than two
hundred feet long, with painted ceiling, floors of marble mosaics from
ancient temples and baths, and exquisite marble columns also from
ancient buildings. In the end they saw some books worth seeing: the
oldest Bible in existence, a manuscript of the fourth century, and an
old second century Virgil. Of later times there was a volume of Henry
VIII's love letters to Anne Boleyn, and many exquisitely illustrated
manuscripts, among them a Natural History illuminated by Raphael and his
pupils.
"I wish he'd cut it short," said Marion, as the guide gave long
descriptions of each manuscript that he pointed out in its case, or in
the drawers that he sometimes unlocked.
"I rather enjoy what he says about the manuscripts as you translate it
for me," responded Irma, "but he need not describe every present given
to every pope. Vases are vases, and we know all these things were
presents to one pope or another. They are all costly and some are
beautiful. But I am getting tired."
It would not have been possible, even had they dared try to hurry the
loquacious guide. Before they left the hall Irma almost forgot her
fatigue in looking at the ancient paintings, inscriptions, and other
relics of early Christians. Again, as at the Lateran, she sighed deeply
at the pathos of the little things brought from the Catacombs, combs and
small toilet articles, little brooches, and other pieces of simple
jewelry.
"You are really tired!" exclaimed Marion, as they passed through the
glass door out of the hall. "But in the Sistine Chapel you can sit
down."
So it happened that after Irma had looked into a mirror held under the
ceiling, on which are painted Michelangelo's frescoes--the sibyls and
the prophets, and the well-known Adam and Eve, Irma from a bench along
the side looked with more or less interest at the paintings opposite her
by Pinturicchio and other masters.
A girl of sixteen, however, is not expected to have the interest of her
elders in old masters, as Irma frankly acknowledged.
"Of course I know the Last Judgment of Michelangelo's is a great
altarpiece, but I do not care to look at it longer. I'm very glad,
though, that you brought me to the Sistine Chapel. When I read about the
great church ceremonies in which the Pope takes part, I can imagine the
crowd here, and the Pope in the centre and----"
Before Irma had finished speaking, from behind a wooden partition that
screened some men repairing the mosaic pavement, one of the workers
stepped out, and with a finger of one hand on his lips, lifted the other
on high with one finger significantly extended. When he saw that he had
gained Marion's attention, he held up a small object, as if he wished
Marion to examine it. Then Marion went forward, and the man put the
object in his hand.
"Cheap enough for a franc," said Marion, displaying a small octagon of
mosaics, green, red, and white.
"Why it's the same pattern as the pavement there."
"Of course, that's why I bought it," he replied, "as a souvenir of the
Sistine Chapel."
"But ought you to take it?" asked Irma. "Had he the right to sell it?"
An expression of anger crossed Marion's face.
"Do you think I would do what is not right? Come," he continued, "we
ought to be on our way out."
Then he strode on, keeping far enough ahead of Irma to prevent
conversation. "He is certainly like a spoiled child!" she thought, "and
I fancied we were getting on so well together."
The drive back to the hotel was rather silent, as well as hot. "In our
hottest weather it is never like this," thought poor Irma. She was glad
enough to reach the shelter of the cool hotel.
"Did you see where the papal dominions end and Italy begins?" asked
Uncle Jim at _dejeuner_.
"No? Then you didn't look in the right place. There is one window from
which the guide could have shown you a soldier of the Pope's on guard,
while at a short distance a sentry from the Italian army is pacing up
and down."
"From one or two windows I caught sight of the beautiful Vatican
gardens," Irma replied, "and even if the Pope is a prisoner, he must
find a great deal to enjoy in his walks."
"_If_ he is a prisoner," began Uncle Jim.
"He is certainly a voluntary prisoner," said Aunt Caroline, "but the
subject is too large a one to discuss now."
Marion was silent, evidently sulking. But Aunt Caroline understood him,
for when he left the table without a word she made no comment.