Latterly, by the exercise of the talent inherited from her father,
Paolina had been able to do something, not only towards meeting her
own expenses, but towards making some return for all that the good
Orsola had done for her out of her own poverty. And now this
commission of the Englishman who had sent her to Ravenna would go
far towards improving the prospects of both Paolina and her old
friend.
Old Orsola did not know exactly at what time to expect Paolina back;
but she knew that Paolina's purpose on that Ash Wednesday morning
was merely to walk to the church, and, having seen the preparations
that had been made for her work, to return, without on that occasion
remaining to begin her task. So that when the hour of the midday
meal arrived, and her young friend had not returned, old Orsola
began to be a little uneasy about her.
Nor was her uneasiness lessened by her entire ignorance as to there
being little or much, or no cause at all for it. Never having left
Venice before in her life, old Orsola was as much a stranger in
Ravenna, and felt herself to be in an unknown world, as completely
as an Englishman would in Japan. Since she had been in Ravenna she
had frequently heard the Pineta spoken of, and the old church out
there in which her young friend was to do a portion of her task. But
she had heard them both mentioned as strange and wild places, not
exactly like all the rest of the world.
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