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Updated: June 19, 2025
The khan was crowded to its utmost, and outside lingered many who had not been able to gain admission and who consulted plaintively with one another as to where they might find a place to sleep, and to eat the food they carried with them. Zia had made his way to the entrance-gate only because he knew the travelers he had followed would seek shelter there, and that he might chance to hear of them.
Boy and girl companions played as they went and made holiday of their journey; young men or women who were friends, lovers, or brothers and sisters bore one another company. "No one is alone," said Zia, twisting his thin fingers together "no one! no one! And there are no lepers. The great Caesar would not count a leper. Perhaps, if he saw one, he would command him to be put to death."
There were no lepers; there were no hunchbacks. There was only Zia, and he was at peace, and akin to the stars that looked down. How heavenly still the waiting world was, how heavenly still! He lay and smiled and smiled; perhaps he lay so for an hour. Then high, high above he saw, or thought he saw, in the remoteness of the vault of blue a brilliant whiteness float.
We should have got much better mourning here at Bocconi's if we could have waited, but of course that was impossible. Our apartment is convenient, but small and rather dark. Maria hopes you are fatter. She is going to send you some panforte and a box of sugared fruits at Christmas. La Zia has begun to crochet another counterpane; that will be the eighth, and we have only three beds. Pazienza!
He did not know that the woman leaned toward him, scarce drawing breath, her wondrous eyes resting upon him as if she waited for a sign. Even as she so gazed she beheld it, and spoke, whispering as in awed prayer: "Go forth and cleanse thy flesh in running water," she said. "Go forth." He moved, he rose, he stood upright the hunchback Zia who had never stood upright before!
Caterina was the first to recover her composure; she made a pathetic effort to steady her voice as she spoke. "Margherita, I must know at once what this meaneth. If one of the Council would come to me there is always one in the Castle my Uncle Andrea or the Councillor Zaffo I would they had not sent Aluisi and the Zia back to the palace! and and I will go to the Boy."
The creatures were awakening from their sleep as if they had heard something. First one head was raised, and then another and another and another, until every head was lifted, and every one was turned toward a certain point as if listening. What were they listening for? Zia could see nothing, though he turned his own face toward the climbing road and listened with them.
'I do not think you grasp my question. An aunt the sister of your father, or perhaps your mother. A gleam of illumination swept over Gustavo's troubled features. 'Ecco! You would know if I haf a zia a aunt yes, zat is it. A aunt. Sicuramente, signore, I haf ten leven aunt. 'Eleven aunts! Before such a tragedy I am speechless; you need say no more, Gustavo, from this moment we are friends.
The little hunchback Zia toiled slowly up the steep road, keeping in the deepest shadows, even though the night had long fallen. Sometimes he staggered with weariness or struck his foot against a stone and smothered his involuntary cry of pain. He was so full of terror that he was afraid to utter a sound which might cause any traveler to glance toward him.
And the soft light bordering her garments set her in a frame of faint radiance and glowed in a halo about her head. "The light! the light!" cried Zia in a breathless whisper. And he crossed his hands upon his breast. Her husband surely could not see it. He moved soberly about, unpacking the burden the ass had carried and seeming to see naught else.
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