Part 20 (1/2)

”Ah, poverinetta! The time is near--she sees her father. And why not?

He loved her well--he would come to fetch her for certain if the saints would let him.”

And she fell on her knees and began to tell over her rosary with great devotion. Meanwhile Stella threw one little arm round my neck--her eyes were half shut--she spoke and breathed with increasing difficulty.

”My throat aches so, papa!” she said, pitifully. ”Can you not make it better?”

”I wish I could, my darling!” I murmured. ”I would bear all the pain for you if it were possible!”

She was silent a minute. Then she said:

”What a long time you have been away! And now I am too ill to play with you!” Then a faint smile crossed her features. ”See poor To-to!” she exclaimed, feebly, as her eyes fell on a battered old doll in the spangled dress of a carnival clown that lay at the foot of her bed.

”Poor dear old To-to! He will think I do not love him any more, because my throat hurts me. Give him to me, papa!”

And as I obeyed her request she encircled the doll with one arm, while she still clung to me with the other, and added:

”To-to remembers you, papa; you know you brought him from Rome, and he is fond of you, too--but not as fond as I am!” And her dark eyes glittered feverishly. Suddenly her glance fell on a.s.sunta, whose gray head was buried in her hands as she knelt.

”a.s.sunta!”

The old woman looked up.

”Bambinetta!” she answered, and her aged voice trembled.

”Why are you crying?” inquired Stella with an air of plaintive surprise. ”Are you not glad to see papa?”

Her words were interrupted by a sharp spasm of pain which convulsed her whole body--she gasped for breath--she was nearly suffocated. a.s.sunta and I raised her up gently and supported her against her pillows; the agony pa.s.sed slowly, but left her little face white and rigid, while large drops of sweat gathered on her brow. I endeavored to soothe her.

”Darling, you must not talk,” I whispered, imploringly; ”try to be very still--then the poor throat will not ache so much.”

She looked at me wistfully. After a minute or two she said, gently:

”Kiss me, then, and I will be quite good.”

I kissed her fondly, and she closed her eyes. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes pa.s.sed and she did not stir. At the end of that time the doctor entered. He glanced at her, gave me a warning look, and remained standing quietly at the foot of the bed. Suddenly the child woke, and smiled divinely on all three of us.

”Are you in pain, my dear?” I softly asked.

”No!” she answered in a tiny voice, so faint and far away that we held our breath to listen to it; ”I am quite well now. a.s.sunta must dress me in my white frock again now papa is here. I knew he would come back!”

And she turned her eyes upon me with a look of bright intelligence.

”Her brain wanders,” said the doctor, in a low, pitying voice; ”it will soon be over.”

Stella did not hear him; she turned and nestled in my arms, asking in a sort of babbling whisper:

”You did not go away because I was naughty, did you, papa?”

”No darling!” I answered, hiding my face in her curls.