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He heard me patiently, and when I had finished, burst out laughing. Why, I have as much money as I want; mother Assunta always furnishes me when I ask for it! You see that I should be a fool to accept your offer. The arguments, and his audacity, perfectly stupefied me. Benedetto rejoined his associates, and I saw him from a distance point me out to them as a fool."
The Contessa Violante was in the habit of spending much of her time in the palace of her great-uncle the Cardinal Legate. It presented, among other advantages, that of being pretty well the only place in which she could escape for awhile from the companionship of the Signora Assunta Fagiani, her duenna.
Before she knew it, Assunta was trotting meekly down the road at the young lady's heels, carrying a great flat basket for the Signorina's use in picking grapes. They were bound for the lower slopes; the grapes ripened earlier there, the peasant woman explained, and the frosts came later. The loaded wagons that they met were going to Arata, a wine press in the valley beyond this nearest hill.
The audacity of the remark had an unexpected effect on the peasant woman. Assunta crossed herself. "Perhaps she did! Perhaps she did! And do you think she does not mind my waiting?" "No," answered Daphne gravely. "She knows that you have been very busy taking care of me." Assunta trotted away, apparently content, to consult Giacomo about dinner.
A new idea had darted across his mind. Did the story that he had just heard offer him no opportunity of advancing the interests of his Order and of his Church? He turned as if to ask another question, but he was too late. Old Assunta was fast falling into the stupor that is but the precursor of death. He called her attendant, and waited for a time to see whether consciousness was likely to return.
And it lasted till San Pietro came and exorcised the wicked spirit, and he put a cross on a wine jar to keep him away. Since then every wine jar bears somewhere the sign of the cross." "What became of the poor god?" asked Daphne. "He fled, I suppose to hell," answered Assunta piously. "Poor heathen gods!" murmured Daphne.
Here in this quiet Benedictine house one seems really to be back in an older world, to have left the noise and confusion of to-day far behind, and in order and in quiet to have found again the beautiful things that are from of old. The Badia, dedicated to S. Maria Assunta, was founded in 978 by Countess Willa, the mother of Ugo of Tuscany, and was rebuilt in 1285 by Arnolfo di Cambio.
Giacomo's defense of his lady got into his fingers, and added much to the brightness of the spoons. The two talked together now, as fast as human tongues could go. Assunta. She could have taken the Signorina. Giacomo. She couldn't. It's fever. Assunta. She could have left her maid. Giacomo. Thank the holy father she didn't! Assunta. And without a word of language to make herself understood.
I was at first somewhat afraid of old Assunta she had been MY nurse was it possible that she would not recognize me? The first time I met her in my new character I almost held my breath in a sort of suspense but the good old woman was nearly blind, and I think she could scarce make out my lineaments.
Assunta shall bring them down in their night-gowns if they are undressed; and we will muffle the windows, for my little man will be wanting his song; and did you not promise him the great one which is to raise Italy-his mother, from the dead? Do you remember our little fellow's eyes as he tried to see the picture? I fear I force him too much, and there's no need-not a bit.
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