The old noble who turns out his
gala liveries and other bedizenments on a festal day, does it to
make up his part of the general show, which is for the gratification
of all classes, and is a gratification to them. But it is a curious
commentary of the past history of Italy that, as between city and
city, there is the feeling, the wish, and the ambition, to crush and
humble a rival community by superior magnificence.
Nobody expected much immediate gratification from attending the
Cardinal's reception. There was little to be done save to bow to the
host and to each other. Ices were handed round--none the less
because it was bitterly cold--and cakes and comfits. Old Contessa
Carini, who had a grandchild at home, and no money to buy bonbons
with, emptied half a plateful of them into her handkerchief,-.the
old servant who handed them helping her; and the Cardinal, who
happened to be standing by, smilingly telling her to give the little
one his benediction with them. The brave old Contessa still kept her
carriage, as it became a Carini to do; though she starved her poor
old shrivelled body to enable her to keep her half-starved horses.
And "society" gave her its applause for struggling so hard to do
that which it became her to do in the state of life to which it had
pleased God to call her; and no soul in the room dreamed of thinking
the less of her because of the sharp poverty that confessed itself
in her eagerness to make the most of the opportunity of the Legate's
hospitality.
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