"Can you sew, carina?"
"My sister Angela knit when she was only four, and I can sew, I'm sure I can. You'll let me, won't you, Marta?—so it will be done before I go with Signor Guiseppe?"
"You shall wear it this afternoon, carina."
"He'll be sure to like the color of the dress. He can't help it, can he? Shan't I be grand, Marta, when I have on my splendid new dress and shoes!"
Marta, looking at the eager little upturned face, forgot she had ever had a sorrow or a hardship.
It did not take long to sew up the simple little frock, but it would certainly have been finished quite an hour before had not Pappina insisted upon sewing this and that. Marta, good soul, in her keen enjoyment of the child's pleasure, considered it no trouble to stop sewing and hold up the little dress to be admired, to try it on some six or seven times, and while Pappina was absorbed in her new shoes, secretly to take out the big stitches put in by this wild little child who would help.
At noon Guiseppe came home, out of sorts and cross. His coming was like a shadow on the happiness that Marta and Pappina felt.
"No money," he growled as he rattled the Punchinellos into a corner. "I might as well have stayed at home. I'm sick of playing to such dogs." Pappina and Marta were silent. "Is it done?" he asked, noticing the red dress in Marta's hands.
"Yes."