“Why Cornelli! You are transformed!” Agnes exclaimed. “Just let me see you. Make a little room, Mux! No, I don’t know you any more. It is fortunate you did it, for it is a pleasure to look at you now.”
“Your mother has done it,” Cornelli explained confusedly, for she was quite overcome at all these manifestations of joy.
Nika also glanced up at her. “You are a different child, Cornelli, and I do not see how you could ever have gotten the way you were.”
These words were said in such a charming manner that a deep sensation of well-being filled Cornelli. She tried to fight against it, however, for she did not think it possible that she should suddenly become freed from her horrible, sickening fear.
Agnes was very anxious to practice their song for the festive reception of the newly risen Dino, and Cornelli, too, was filled with ardor. The two children kept up their singing quite a while, for Agnes could not weary of trying the songs for two voices which she had never before been able to use.
Dino did not come until lunch time. Though he was still very pale, he felt extremely lively. “Hurrah, Cornelli!” he cried out as he entered the living room. “Now you look again the way you used to in Iller-Stream when you forgot to pull your curtains over your brow. You even look better than that, Cornelli, you look perfectly splendid! Another hurrah for this great joy!”
The next moment a surprise came for Dino: the lovely festive song which Agnes and Cornelli were singing in his honor. The voice of the latter was full of purity and strength, and Dino kept on signalling to Nika over and over again, saying in a low voice: “Do you hear it? Do you see it? Do you notice it at last?”
It was quite evident that two had not been of the same opinion about Cornelli till that day.
So they all had a merry feast. In Cornelli’s heart the feeling of delicious well-being gradually began to drive away all other sensations. Her old gaiety broke forth boundlessly and roused all the others as well to great merriment and joy. Dino looked quite well again, and his eyes fairly beamed with happiness. Even the mother joined in their gay mood, and she had to glance over and over again at her two daughters, who had seldom shown such unclouded joy. She heaved a secret sigh, however, and asked herself: I wonder how long this happiness will last, for we have hard times before us.
“Wasn’t I right, after all?” Dino said to his sisters, when Cornelli had retired and the family separated at bedtime. The sisters till now had made disparaging remarks to him about Cornelli. “We do not see what attracts you in her,” they had said. “We don’t understand how you can find her entertaining,” and so on.