Part 15 (1/2)

”I'm very hungry.”

”Come, then; come with me.”

He lifted her from her knees, and led her out under the cloisters surrounding the atrium, which were then open, and not yet adorned with the frescoes of Andrea del Sarto.

”How is it you are all by yourself, and so hungry, Tessa?”

”The Madre is ill; she has very bad pains in her legs, and sent me to bring these coc.o.o.ns to the Santissima Nunziata, because they're so wonderful; see!”--she held up the bunch of coc.o.o.ns, which were arranged with fortuitous regularity on a stem,--”and she had kept them to bring them herself, but she couldn't, and so she sent me because she thinks the Holy Madonna may take away her pains; and somebody took my bag with the bread and chestnuts in it, and the people pushed me back, and I was so frightened coming in the crowd, and I couldn't get anywhere near the Holy Madonna, to give the coc.o.o.ns to the Padre, but I must--oh, I must.”

”Yes, my little Tessa, you shall take them; but first come and let me give you some berlingozzi. There are some to be had not far off.”

”Where did you come from?” said Tessa, a little bewildered. ”I thought you would never come to me again, because you never came to the Mercato for milk any more. I set myself Aves to say, to see if they would bring you back, but I left off, because they didn't.”

”You see I come when you want some one to take care of you, Tessa.

Perhaps the Aves fetched me, only it took them a long while. But what shall you do if you are here all alone? Where shall you go?”

”Oh, I shall stay and sleep in the church--a great many of them do--in the church and all about here--I did once when I came with my mother; and the _patrigno_ is coming with the mules in the morning.”

They were out in the piazza now, where the crowd was rather less riotous than before, and the lights were fewer, the stream of pilgrims having ceased. Tessa clung fast to t.i.to's arm in satisfied silence, while he led her towards the stall where he remembered seeing the eatables.

Their way was the easier because there was just now a great rush towards the middle of the piazza, where the masqued figures on stilts had found s.p.a.ce to execute a dance. It was very pretty to see the guileless thing giving her coc.o.o.ns into t.i.to's hand, and then eating her berlingozzi with the relish of a hungry child. t.i.to had really come to take care of her, as he did before, and that wonderful happiness of being with him had begun again for her. Her hunger was soon appeased, all the sooner for the new stimulus of happiness that had roused her from her languor, and, as they turned away from the stall, she said nothing about going into the church again, but looked round as if the sights in the piazza were not without attraction to her now she was safe under t.i.to's arm.

”How can they do that?” she exclaimed, looking up at the dancers on stilts. Then, after a minute's silence, ”Do you think Saint Christopher helps them?”

”Perhaps. What do you think about it, Tessa?” said t.i.to, slipping his right arm round her, and looking down at her fondly.

”Because Saint Christopher is so very tall; and he is very good: if anybody looks at him he takes care of them all day. He is on the wall of the church--too tall to stand up there--but I saw him walking through the streets one San Giovanni, carrying the little Gesu.”

”You pretty pigeon! Do you think anybody could help taking care of _you_, if you looked at them?”

”Shall you always come and take care of me?” said Tessa, turning her face up to him, as he crushed her cheek with his left-hand. ”And shall you always be a long while first?”

t.i.to was conscious that some bystanders were laughing at them, and though the licence of street fun, among artists and young men of the wealthier sort as well as among the populace, made few adventures exceptional, still less disreputable, he chose to move away towards the end of the piazza.

”Perhaps I shall come again to you very soon, Tessa,” he answered, rather dreamily, when they had moved away. He was thinking that when all the rest had turned their backs upon him, it would be pleasant to have this little creature adoring him and nestling against him. The absence of presumptuous self-conceit in t.i.to made him feel all the more defenceless under prospective obloquy: he needed soft looks and caresses too much ever to be impudent.

”In the Mercato?” said Tessa. ”Not to-morrow morning, because the _patrigno_ will be there, and he is so cross. Oh! but you have money, and he will not be cross if you buy some salad. And there are some chestnuts. Do you like chestnuts?”

He said nothing, but continued to look down at her with a dreamy gentleness, and Tessa felt herself in a state of delicious wonder; everything seemed as new as if she were being earned on a chariot of clouds.

”Holy Virgin!” she exclaimed again presently. ”There is a holy father like the Bishop I saw at Prato.”

t.i.to looked up too, and saw that he had unconsciously advanced to within a few yards of the conjuror, Maestro Vaiano, who for the moment was forsaken by the crowd. His face was turned away from them, and he was occupied with the apparatus on his altar or table, preparing a new diversion by the time the interest in the dancing should be exhausted.

The monkey was imprisoned under the red cloth, out of reach of mischief, and the youngster in the white surplice was holding a sort of dish or salver, from which his master was taking some ingredient. The altar-like table, with its gorgeous cloth, the row of tapers, the sham episcopal costume, the surpliced attendant, and even the movements of the mitred figure, as he alternately bent his head and then raised something before the lights, were a sufficiently near parody of sacred things to rouse poor little Tessa's veneration; and there was some additional awe produced by the mystery of their apparition in this spot, for when she had seen an altar in the street before, it had been on Corpus Christi Day, and there had been a procession to account for it.

She crossed herself and looked up at t.i.to, but then, as if she had had time for reflection, said, ”It is because of the Nativita.”

Meanwhile Vaiano had turned round, raising his hands to his mitre with the intention of changing his dress, when his quick eye recognised t.i.to and Tessa who were both looking at him, their faces being shone upon by the light of his tapers, while his own was in shadow.

”Ha! my children!” he said, instantly, stretching out his hands in a benedictory att.i.tude, ”you are come to be married. I commend your penitence--the blessing of Holy Church can never come too late.”