CHAPTER XVI.
A sweet sound came through the orange boughs, and floated to the ears of
the parson, as he wound slowly up the gentle ascent,--so sweet, so
silvery, he paused in delight--unaware, wretched man! that he was thereby
conniving at Papistical errors. Soft it came and sweet; softer and
sweeter,--"Ave Maria!" Violante was chanting the evening hymn to the
Virgin Mother. The parson at last distinguished the sense of the words,
and shook his head with the pious shake of an orthodox Protestant. He
broke from the spell resolutely, and walked on with a sturdy step.
Gaining the terrace, he found the little family seated under an awning,--
Mrs. Riccabocca knitting; the signor with his arms folded on his breast:
the book he had been reading a few moments before had fallen on the
ground, and his dark eyes were soft and dreamy. Violante had finished
her hymn, and seated herself on the ground between the two, pillowing her
head on her stepmother's lap, but with her hand resting on her father's
knee, and her gaze fixed fondly on his face.
"Good-evening," said Mr. Dale. Violante stole up to him, and, pulling
him so as to bring his ear nearer to her lip, whispered, "Talk to Papa,
do,--and cheerfully; he is sad."
She escaped from him as she said this, and appeared to busy herself with
watering the flowers arranged on stands round the awning. But she kept
her swimming lustrous eyes wistfully on her father.
"How fares it with you, my dear friend?" said the parson, kindly, as he
rested his hand on the Italian's shoulder. "You must not let him get out
of spirits, Mrs. Riccabocca."
"I am very ungrateful to her if I ever am so," said the poor Italian,
with all his natural gallantry. Many a good wife, who thinks it is a
reproach to her if her husband is ever "out of spirits," might have
turned peevishly from that speech, more elegant than sincere, and so have
made bad worse; but Mrs. Riccabocca took her husband's proffered hand
affectionately, and said with great /naivete/,--
"You see I am so stupid, Mr. Dale; I never knew I was so stupid till I
married. But I am very glad you are come. You can get on some learned
subject together, and then he will not miss so much his--"
"His what?" asked Riccabocca, inquisitively.
"His country. Do you think that I cannot sometimes read your thoughts?"
"Very often. But you did not read them just then. The tongue touches
where the tooth aches, but the best dentist cannot guess at the tooth
unless one open one's mouth.--Basta! Can we offer you some wine of our
own making, Mr. Dale?--it is pure."
"I 'd rather have some tea," quoth the parson, hastily. Mrs. Riccabocca,
too pleased to be in her natural element of domestic use, hurried into
the house to prepare our national beverage. And the parson, sliding into
her chair, said,--
"But you are dejected then? Fie! If there's a virtue in the world at
which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness."
"I don't dispute it," said Riccabocca, with a heavy sigh. "But though it
is said by some Greek, who, I think, is quoted by your favourite Seneca,
that a wise man carries his country with him at the soles of his feet, he
can't carry also the sunshine over his head."
"I tell you what it is," said the parson, bluntly; "you would have a much
keener sense of happiness if you had much less esteem for philosophy."
"/Cospetto!/" said the doctor, rousing himself. "Just explain, will
you?"
"Does not the search after wisdom induce desires not satisfied in this
small circle to which your life is confined? It is not so much your
country for which you yearn, as it is for space to your intellect,
employment for your thoughts, career for your aspirations."
"You have guessed at the tooth which aches," said Riccabocca, with
admiration.
"Easy to do that," answered the parson. "Our wisdom teeth come last and
give us the most pain; and if you would just starve the mind a little,
and nourish the heart more, you would be less of a philosopher and more
of a--" The parson had the word "Christian" at the tip of his tongue;
he suppressed a word that, so spoken, would have been exceedingly
irritating, and substituted, with elegant antithesis, "and more of a
happy man!"
"I do all I can with my heart," quoth the doctor.
"Not you! For a man with such a heart as yours should never feel the
want of the sunshine. My friend, we live in an age of over mental
cultivation. We neglect too much the simple healthful outer life, in
which there is so much positive joy. In turning to the world within us,
we grow blind to this beautiful world without; in studying ourselves as
men, we almost forget to look up to heaven, and warm to the smile of
God."
The philosopher mechanically shrugged his shoulders, as he always did
when another man moralized,--especially if the moralizer were a priest;
but there was no irony in his smile, as he answered thoughtfully,--
"There is some truth in what you say. I own that we live too much as if
we were all brain. Knowledge has its penalties and pains, as well as its
prizes."
"That is just what I want you to say to Leonard."
"How have you settled the object of your journey?"
"I will tell you as we walk down to him after tea. At present, I am
rather too much occupied with you."
"Me? The tree is formed--try only to bend the young twig!"
"Trees are trees, and twigs twigs," said the parson, dogmatically; "but
man is always growing till he falls into the grave. I think I have heard
you say that you once had a narrow escape of a prison?"
"Very narrow."
"Just suppose that you were now in that prison, and that a fairy conjured
up the prospect of this quiet home in a safe land; that you saw the
orange-trees in flower, felt the evening breeze on your cheek; beheld
your child gay or sad, as you smiled or knit your brow; that within this
phantom home was a woman, not, indeed, all your young romance might have
dreamed of, but faithful and true, every beat of her heart all your own,
--would you not cry from the depth of your dungeon, 'O fairy! such a
change were a paradise!' Ungrateful man! you want interchange for your
mind, and your heart should suffice for all!"
Riccabocca was touched and silent.
"Come hither, my child," said Mr. Dale, turning round to Violante, who
stood still among the flowers, out of hearing, but with watchful eyes.
"Come hither," he said, opening his arms.
Violante bounded forward, and nestled to the good man's heart.
"Tell me, Violante, when you are alone in the fields or the garden, and
have left your father looking pleased and serene, so that you have no
care for him at your heart,--tell me, Violante, though you are all alone,
with the flowers below, and the birds singing overhead, do you feel that
life itself is happiness or sorrow?"
"Happiness!" answered Violante, half shutting her eyes, and in a measured
voice.
"Can you explain what kind of happiness it is?"
"Oh, no, impossible! and it is never the same. Sometimes it is so still
--so still, and sometimes so joyous, that I long for wings to fly up to
God, and thank Him!"
"O friend," said the parson, "this is the true sympathy between life and
nature, and thus we should feel ever, did we take more care to preserve
the health and innocence of a child. We are told that we must become as
children to enter into the kingdom of Heaven; methinks we should also
become as children to know what delight there is in our heritage of
earth!"
