Here was the true faith and the righteous, holy wrath. This young man must become an artist. To England, he should go to England! She wished to send him to the great master, her friend, who was trying to reform art; to him who wished to teach people to make beautiful house-furnishings, beautiful church-fittings, who wished to create a whole beautiful world.
She decided and arranged, and Gaetano let her go on, because he would rather now go away from Diamante.
He saw that he could no longer endure to live there. He believed that it was God leading him out of temptation.
He went away quite unobserved. Donna Micaela scarcely knew anything of it until he was gone. He had not dared to come and bid her good-bye.
X
THE SIROCCO
After that two years passed quietly. The only thing that happened at Diamante and in all Sicily was that the people grew ever poorer and poorer.
Then there came an autumn, and it was about the time when the wine was to be harvested.
At that time songs generally rise full-fledged to the lips; at that time new and beautiful melodies stream from the mandolins.