The first Happy One is "that superb great haughty Ottima," wife of the old magnate, Luca, who owns the silk-mills. The New Year's morning may be wet—
". . . Can rain disturb
Her Sebald's homage? all the while thy rain
Beats fiercest on her shrub-house window-pane,
He will but press the closer, breathe more warm
Against her cheek: how should she mind the storm?"
Here we learn what later we are very fully to be shown—that Ottima's "happiness" is not in her husband.
The second Happy One is Phene, the bride that very day of Jules, the young French sculptor. They are to come home at noon, and though noon, like morning, should be wet—
". . . what care bride and groom
Save for their dear selves? 'Tis their marriage day;
* * * * *
Hand clasping hand, within each breast would be
Sunbeams and pleasant weather, spite of thee."
The third Happy One—or Happy Ones, for these two Pippa cannot separate—are Luigi, the young aristocrat-patriot, and his mother. Evening is their time, for it is in the dusk that they "commune inside our turret"—
"The lady and her child, unmatched, forsooth,
She in her age, as Luigi in his youth,
For true content . . ."
Aye—though the evening should be obscured with mist, they will not grieve—