on the evening of the 2d of may 1509, five persons, of whose history we have known something, were seated in a handsome upper room opening on to a loggia which, at its right-hand corner, looked all along the borgo pinti, and over the city gate towards fiesole, and the solemn heights beyond it.
at one end of the room was an archway opening into a narrow inner room, hardly more than a recess, where the light fell from above on a small altar covered with fair white linen. over the altar was a picture, discernible at the distance where the little party sat only as the small full-length portrait of a dominican brother. for it was shaded from the light above by overhanging branches and wreaths of flowers, and the fresh tapers below it were unlit. but it seemed that the decoration of the altar and its recess was not complete. for part of the floor was strewn with a confusion of flowers and green boughs, and among them sat a delicate blue-eyed girl of thirteen, tossing her long light-brown hair out of her eyes, as she made selections for the wreaths she was weaving, or looked up at her mother’s work in the same kind, and told her how to do it with a little air of instruction.
for that mother was not very clever at weaving flowers or at any other work. tessa’s fingers had not become more adroit with the years — only very much fatter. she got on slowly and turned her head about a good deal, and asked ninna’s opinion with much deference; for tessa never ceased to be astonished at the wisdom of her children. she still wore her contadina gown: it was only broader than the old one; and there was the silver pin in her rough curly brown hair, and round her neck the memorable necklace, with a red cord under it, that ended mysteriously in her bosom. her rounded face wore even a more perfect look of childish content than in her younger days: everybody was so good in the world, tessa thought; even monna brigida never found fault with her now, and did little else than sleep, which was an amiable practice in everybody, and one that tessa liked for herself.
monna brigida was asleep at this moment, in a straight-backed arm-chair, a couple of yards off. her hair, parting backward under her black hood, had that soft whiteness which is not like snow or anything else, but is simply the lovely whiteness of aged hair. her chin had sunk on her bosom, and her hands rested on the elbow of her chair. she had not been weaving flowers or doing anything else: she had only been looking on as usual, and as usual had fallen asleep.
the other two figures were seated farther off, at the wide doorway that opened on to the loggia. lillo sat on the ground with his back against the angle of the door-post, and his long legs stretched out, while he held a large book open on his knee, and occasionally made a dash with his hand at an inquisitive fly, with an air of interest stronger than that excited by the finely-printed copy of petrarch which he kept open at one place, as if he were learning something by heart.
romola sat nearly opposite lillo, but she was not observing him. her hands were crossed on her lap and her eyes were fixed absently on the distant mountains: she was evidently unconscious of anything around her. an eager life had left its marks upon her: the finely-moulded cheek had sunk a little, the golden crown was less massive; but there was a placidity in romola’s face which had never belonged to it in youth. it is but once that we can know our worst sorrows and romola had known them while life was new.
absorbed in this way, she was not at first aware that lillo had ceased to look at his book, and was watching her with a slightly impatient air, which meant that he wanted to talk to her, but was not quite sure whether she would like that entertainment just now. but persevering looks make themselves felt at last. romola did presently turn away her eyes from the distance and met lillo’s impatient dark gaze with a brighter and brighter smile. he shuffled along the floor, still keeping the book on his lap, till he got close to her and lodged his chin on her knee.
‘what is it, lillo?’ said romola, pulling his hair back from his brow. lillo was a handsome lad, but his features were turning out to be more massive and less regular than his father’s. the blood of the tuscan peasant was in his veins.
‘mamma romola, what am i to be?’ he said, well contented that there was a prospect of talking till it would be too late to con ‘spirito gentil’ any longer.
‘what should you like to be, lillo? you might be a scholar. my father was a scholar, you know, and taught me a great deal. that is the reason why i can teach you.’
‘yes,’ said lillo, rather hesitatingly. ‘but he is old and blind in the picture. did he get a great deal of glory?’
‘not much, lillo. the world was not always very kind to him, and he saw meaner men than himself put into higher places, because they could flatter and say what was false. and then his dear son thought it right to leave him and become a monk; and after that, my father, being blind and lonely, felt unable to do the things that would have made his learning of greater use to men, so that he might still have lived in his works after he was in his grave.’
‘i should not like that sort of life,’ said lillo. ‘i should like to be something that would make me a great man, and very happy besides — something that would not hinder me from having a good deal of pleasure.’
‘that is not easy, my lillo. it is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. we can only have the highest happiness, such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves; and this sort of happiness often brings so much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose before everything else, because our souls see it is good. there are so many things wrong and difficult in the world, that no man can be great — he can hardly keep himself from wickedness — unless he gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful. my father had the greatness that belongs to integrity; he chose poverty and obscurity rather than falsehood. and there was fra girolamo — you know why i keep to-morrow sacred: he had the greatness which belongs to a life spent in struggling against powerful wrong, and in trying to raise men to the highest deeds they are capable of. and so, my lillo, if you mean to act nobly and seek to know the best things god has put within reach of men, you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on what will happen to you because of it. and remember, if you were to choose something lower, and make it the rule of your life to seek your own pleasure and escape from what is disagreeable, calamity might come just the same; and it would be calamity falling on a base mind, which is the one form of sorrow that has no balm in it, and that may well make a man say, — “it would have been better for me if i had never been born.” i will tell you something, lillo.’
romola paused for a moment. she had taken lillo’s cheeks between her hands, and his young eyes were meeting hers.
‘there was a man to whom i was very near, so that i could see a great deal of his life, who made almost every one fond of him, for he was young, and clever, and beautiful, and his manners to all were gentle and kind. i believe, when i first knew him, he never thought of anything cruel or base. but because he tried to slip away from everything that was unpleasant, and cared for nothing else so much as his own safety, he came at last to commit some of the basest deeds — such as make men infamous. he denied his father, and left him to misery; he betrayed every trust that was reposed in him, that he might keep himself safe and get rich and prosperous. yet calamity overtook him.’
again romola paused. her voice was unsteady, and lillo was looking up at her with awed wonder.
‘another time, my lillo — i will tell you another time. see, there are our old piero di cosimo and nello coming up the borgo pinti, bringing us their flowers. let us go and wave our hands to them, that they may know we see them.’
‘how queer old piero is!’ said lillo, as they stood at the corner of the loggia, watching the advancing figures. ‘he abuses you for dressing the altar, and thinking so much of fra girolamo, and yet he brings you the flowers.’
‘never mind,’ said romola. ‘there are many good people who did not love fra girolamo. perhaps i should never have learned to love him if he had not helped me when i was in great need.’
the end
