It was now within ten days or so of the end of Carnival; and, while
almost everybody else was amusing themselves in some way or other,
Paolina stuck close to her work in the chapel, intent on her silent
and solitary task, while, from time to time, the voices of revellers
in the streets would reach her in her seclusion.
But all her hours of work there had not passed in utter solitude.
The Contessa Violante was in the habit of spending much of her time
in the palace of her great-uncle the Cardinal Legate. It presented,
among other advantages, that of being pretty well the only place in
which she could escape for awhile from the companionship of the
Signora Assunta Fagiani, her duenna. Certainly, it would not have
been consistent with that lady's conception of her duty to allow her
charge to visit any other house whatever in the city, without the
protection of her companionship, but the palace of a Cardinal
Legate--and that Legate her great-uncle. Besides that, her great-
aunt, the Cardinal's sister, was also often at her brother's
residence; and, having this facility close at hand, Violante was
wont very frequently to avail herself of the privacy, comfort, and
warmth of her uncle's chapel for the morning's devotions, which she
never missed.
One morning she found a small portable scaffold or estrade of deals
standing in one corner of the chapel; and, on inquiring for what
purpose it had been placed there, she was told that it was to enable
an artist to make a copy of some of the mosaics on the vault of the
little apartment.
Pages:
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324