"Ask Paolo to tell you; the story will sound far better from his lips than from mine."
Paolo returned, and they all got into the boat. Soon after they were fairly afloat, Mr. Earnscliffe said, "Paolo, my friend wants to know why you said that Anina was so precious—will you tell him?"
"With pleasure, illustrissimo," and his eyes looked the pleasure which his words expressed, for he was always happy and proud to talk of Anina; "but," he added, "perhaps it will weary his excellency, as he knows it all so well."
"Not at all—I never tire of hearing about her."
The father's face lit up with pleasure as he said, "The signor must know, then, that last year there was great distress in our poor island—so much so that the poorer fishermen, like myself, were hardly able to live. In the month of April our great trial fell upon us: our eldest child, a boy about a year older than Anina, sickened and died. Our little Anina herself began to fade too; she grew weaker and weaker, and lay in the sun all day hardly moving or speaking. One day the doctor happened to pass, and my wife asked him for charity's sake to examine la poverina. He did so, and said, 'She is sinking from weakness, and I fear in this time of distress there is but little hope for her.'
"That evening, as we sat outside looking at the child's little pale face and closed eyes, lying as she was in her mother's arms, we shuddered to think how soon those eyes might be closed, like our other darling's, never, alas! to open again. All at once Maria, my wife, exclaimed, 'Take me to Sorrento to-morrow, Paolo, that we may go to the shrine there and pray to the Madonna to save our child.'
"'Via! Maria, via! Have I not already prayed to the Madonna and the saints, as only a despairing father could pray, and all in vain,' was my answer.
"'Hush! marito mio,' she cried, 'if thou speakest so we are lost—only take me to Sorrento, and thou shalt see what the Madonna will do for us. She must hear me. Take me, Paolo! Oh take me!'
"I could not refuse poor Maria, although I thought it all fruitless—Santissima Madre di Dio mi perdoni."