Paolo saw that Mr. Earnscliffe meant this to terminate the interview, and he asked at what hour sua eccellenza would want the boat; but Mr. Earnscliffe answered that he would not require it, as he was going by the steamer.
"Then I shall never row sua eccellenza again," exclaimed Paolo, giving way to violent demonstrations of grief.... This was all extremely painful to Mr. Earnscliffe, and so contrary to all his natural, or, rather, national, notions of what grief ought to be; yet he could not be brusque to Paolo, for he saw that, although it appeared most unseemly to him, it was real and natural in the excitable Italian, but he said gravely—
"Paolo, it is a man's part to be strong, and not to give way to feeling as women do, and for my sake you must subdue all this. Think how you grieve me by making me thus feel that I give you pain. Now addio, I must go to the bambina."
"But I shall see sua eccellenza again, surely? He will come to say addio to Maria?"
"Yes, but I shall expect you both to be very calm,—al rivedersi dunque!"
Mr. Earnscliffe gently turned away, and taking the case which contained the statue for Anina, he left the room. Paolo slowly followed him. At the hall door they met the child, and taking her by the hand Mr. Earnscliffe drew her on quickly so that she might not see her father's emotion.
After a short walk along a pretty rocky path they came to a kind of creek formed by the rocks, so as to be completely shaded from the sun; here he sat down and opened the box, displaying to Anina's longing eyes a little white temple; the roof was arched and supported by four columns, round which ran scrolls of lilies painted on a blue ground and bordered with gold; inside, on a pedestal, was a small, but, for its size, beautiful figure of the Madonna, draped in a blue cloak starred with gold.
Mr. Earnscliffe looked upon the Madonna as being nothing more than a good woman to whom superstition had given an undue and almost a Divine celebrity; but, in imagination, no one could form a more poetical idea than he did of the purity and beauty surrounding the mother of an incarnate God; therefore, he had chosen the best representation of this idea that he could find.
Anina's delight was unbounded. She literally danced round it, repeating, "Come è bella, bellissima!" Then throwing her arms round Mr. Earnscliffe, she half smothered him with her gratitude.