“It is the truth, my sister,” said a still taller youth, evidently the archangel of this band. “Listen to these voices speaking the divine message. You already carry a red cross: let that be your only adornment. Yield up your necklace and belt, and you shall obtain grace.”
This was too much. Tessa, overcome with awe, dared not say “no,” but she was equally unable to render up her beloved necklace and clasp. Her pouting lips were quivering, the tears rushed to her eyes, and a great drop fell. For a moment she ceased to see anything; she felt nothing but confused terror and misery. Suddenly a gentle hand was laid on her arm, and a soft, wonderful voice, as if the Holy Madonna were speaking, said, “Do not be afraid; no one shall harm you.”
Tessa looked up and saw a lady in black, with a young heavenly face and loving hazel eyes. She had never seen any one like this lady before, and under other circumstances might have had awestruck thoughts about her; but now everything else was overcome by the sense that loving protection was near her. The tears only fell the faster, relieving her swelling heart, as she looked up at the heavenly face, and, putting her hand to her necklace, said sobbingly—
“I can’t give them to be burnt. My husband—he bought them for me—and they are so pretty—and Ninna—oh, I wish I’d never come!”
“Do not ask her for them,” said Romola, speaking to the white-robed boys in a tone of mild authority. “It answers no good end for people to give up such things against their will. That is not what Fra Girolamo approves: he would have such things given up freely.”
Madonna Romola’s word was not to be resisted, and the white train moved on. They even moved with haste, as if some new object had caught their eyes; and Tessa felt with bliss that they were gone, and that her necklace and clasp were still with her.
“Oh, I will go back to the house,” she said, still agitated; “I will go nowhere else. But if I should meet them again, and you not be there?” she added, expecting everything from this heavenly lady.
“Stay a little,” said Romola. “Come with me under this doorway, and we will hide the necklace and clasp, and then you will be in no danger.”
She led Tessa under the archway, and said, “Now, can we find room for your necklace and belt in your basket? Ah! your basket is full of crisp things that will break: let us be careful, and lay the heavy necklace under them.”
It was like a change in a dream to Tessa—the escape from nightmare into floating safety and joy—to find herself taken care of by this lady, so lovely, and powerful, and gentle. She let Romola unfasten her necklace and clasp, while she herself did nothing but look up at the face that bent over her.