There will be warrant for the worship—
". . . For am I not, this day,
Whate'er I please? What shall I please to-day?
* * * * *
I may fancy all day—and it shall be so—
That I taste of the pleasures, am called by the names,
Of the Happiest Four in our Asolo!"
So, as she winds up her hair (we may fancy), Pippa plays the not yet relinquished baby-game of Let's-pretend; but is grown-up in this—that she begins and ends with love, which children give and take unconsciously.
"Some one shall love me, as the world calls love:
I am no less than Ottima, take warning!
The gardens and the great stone house above,
And other house for shrubs, all glass in front,
Are mine; where Sebald steals, as he is wont,
To court me, while old Luca yet reposes . . ."
But this earliest pretending breaks down quickly. What, after all, is the sum of those doings in the shrub-house? What would Pippa gain, were she in truth great haughty Ottima? She would but "give abundant cause for prate." Ottima, bold, confident, and not fully aware, can face that out, but Pippa knows, more closely than the woman rich and proud can know,
"How we talk in the little town below."
So the first dream is over.