CHAPTER IX.
A ROMAN HOLIDAY.
"Oh dear!" said Mrs. Ashe, as she folded her letters and laid themaside, "I wish those Pages would go away from Nice, or else that thefrigates were not there."
"Why! what's the matter?" asked Katy, looking up from the many-leavedjournal from Clover over which she was poring.
"Nothing is the matter except that those everlasting people haven't goneto Spain yet, as they said they would, and Ned seems to keep on seeingthem," replied Mrs. Ashe, petulantly.
"But, dear Polly, what difference does it make? And they never didpromise you to go on any particular time, did they?"
"N-o, they didn't; but I wish they would, all the same. Not that Ned issuch a goose as really to care anything for that foolish Lilly!" Thenshe gave a little laugh at her own inconsistency, and added, "But Ioughtn't to abuse her when she is your cousin."
"Don't mention it," said Katy, cheerfully. "But, really, I don't see whypoor Lilly need worry you so, Polly dear."
The room in which this conversation took place was on the very topmostfloor of the Hotel del Hondo in Rome. It was large and many-windowed;and though there was a little bed in one corner half hidden behind acalico screen, with a bureau and washing-stand, and a sort of stoutmahogany hat-tree on which Katy's dresses and jackets were hanging, theremaining space, with a sofa and easy-chairs grouped round a fire, and around table furnished with books and a lamp, was ample enough to make agood substitute for the private sitting-room which Mrs. Ashe had notbeen able to procure on account of the near approach of the Carnival andthe consequent crowding of strangers to Rome. In fact, she was assuredthat under the circumstances she was lucky in finding rooms as good asthese; and she made the most of the assurance as a consolation for thesomewhat unsatisfactory food and service of the hotel, and the four longflights of stairs which must be passed every time they needed to reachthe dining-room or the street door.
The party had been in Rome only four days, but already they had seen ahost of interesting things. They had stood in the strange sunken spacewith its marble floor and broken columns, which is all that is left ofthe great Roman Forum. They had visited the Coliseum, at that periodstill overhung with ivy garlands and trailing greeneries, and not, asnow, scraped clean and bare and "tidied" out of much of itspicturesqueness. They had seen the Baths of Caracalla and the Temple ofJanus and St. Peter's and the Vatican marbles, and had driven out on theCampagna and to the Pamphili-Doria Villa to gather purple and redanemones, and to the English cemetery to see the grave of Keats. Theyhad also peeped into certain shops, and attended a reception at theAmerican Minister's,--in short, like most unwarned travellers, they haddone about twice as much as prudence and experience would havepermitted, had those worthies been consulted.
All the romance of Katy's nature responded to the fascination of theancient city,--the capital of the world, as it may truly be called. Theshortest drive or walk brought them face to face with innumerable andunexpected delights. Now it was a wonderful fountain, with plunginghorses and colossal nymphs and Tritons, holding cups and horns fromwhich showers of white foam rose high in air to fall like rushing raininto an immense marble basin. Now it was an arched doorway withtraceries as fine as lace,--sole-remaining fragment of a heathen temple,flung and stranded as it were by the waves of time on the squalid shoreof the present. Now it was a shrine at the meeting of three streets,where a dim lamp burned beneath the effigy of the Madonna, with always afresh rose beside it in a vase, and at its foot a peasant woman kneelingin red bodice and blue petticoat, with a lace-trimmed towel folded overher hair. Or again it would be a sunlit terrace lifted high on ahillside, and crowded with carriages full of beautifully dressed people,while below all Rome seemed spread out like a panorama, dim, mighty,majestic, and bounded by the blue wavy line of the Campagna and theAlban hills. Or perhaps it might be a wonderful double flight of stepswith massive balustrades and pillars with urns, on which sat a crowd offigures in strange costumes and attitudes, who all looked as though theyhad stepped out of pictures, but who were in reality models waiting forartists to come by and engage them. No matter what it was,--a bit ofoddly tinted masonry with a tuft of brown and orange wallflowers hangingupon it, or a vegetable stall where endive and chiccory and curlylettuces were arranged in wreaths with tiny orange gourds and scarletpeppers for points of color,--it was all Rome, and, by virtue of thatword, different from any other place,--more suggestive, moreinteresting, ten times more mysterious than any other could possibly be,so Katy thought.
This fact consoled her for everything and anything,--for the fleas, thedirt, for the queer things they had to eat and the still queerer odorsthey were forced to smell! Nothing seemed of any particular consequenceexcept the deep sense of enjoyment, and the newly discovered world ofthought and sensation of which she had become suddenly conscious.
The only drawback to her happiness, as the days went on, was thatlittle Amy did not seem quite well or like herself. She had taken acold on the journey from Naples, and though it did not seem serious,that, or something, made her look pale and thin. Her mother said shewas growing fast, but the explanation did not quite account for thewistful look in the child's eyes and the tired feeling of which shecontinually complained. Mrs. Ashe, with vague uneasiness, began to talkof cutting short their Roman stay and getting Amy off to the morebracing air of Florence. But meanwhile there was the Carnival close athand, which they must by no means lose; and the feeling that theiropportunity might be a brief one made her and Katy all the more anxiousto make the very most of their time. So they filled the days full withsights to see and things to do, and came and went; sometimes taking Amywith them, but more often leaving her at the hotel under the care of akind German chambermaid, who spoke pretty good English and to whom Amyhad taken a fancy.
"The marble things are so cold, and the old broken things make me sosorry," she explained; "and I hate beggars because they are dirty, andthe stairs make my back ache; and I'd a great deal rather stay withMaria and go up on the roof, if you don't mind, mamma."
This roof, which Amy had chosen as a playplace, covered the whole of thegreat hotel, and had been turned into a sort of upper-air garden by thesimple process of gravelling it all over, placing trellises of ivy hereand there, and setting tubs of oranges and oleanders and boxes of gaygeraniums and stock-gillyflowers on the balustrades. A tame fawn wastethered there. Amy adopted him as a playmate; and what with his companyand that of the flowers, the times when her mother and Katy were absentfrom her passed not unhappily.
Katy always repaired to the roof as soon as they came in from their longmornings and afternoons of sight-seeing. Years afterward, she wouldremember with contrition how pathetically glad Amy always was to seeher. She would put her little head on Katy's breast and hold her tightfor many minutes without saying a word. When she did speak it was alwaysabout the house and the garden that she talked. She never asked anyquestions as to where Katy had been, or what she had done; it seemed totire her to think about it.
"I should be very lonely sometimes if it were not for my dear littlefawn," she told Katy once. "He is so sweet that I don't miss you andmamma very much while I have him to play with. I call him Florio,--don'tyou think that is a pretty name? I like to stay with him a great dealbetter than to go about with you to those nasty-smelling old churches,with fleas hopping all over them!"
So Amy was left in peace with her fawn, and the others made haste to seeall they could before the time came to go to Florence.
Amy was left in peace with her fawn.]
Katy realized one of the "moments" for which she had come to Europe whenshe stood for the first time on the balcony overhanging the Corso, whichMrs. Ashe had hired in company with some acquaintances made at thehotel, and looked down at the ebb and surge of the just-begun Carnival.The narrow street seemed humming with people of all sorts andconditions. Some were masked; some were not. There were ladies andgentlemen in fashionable clothes, peasants in the gayest costumes,surprised-looking tourists in tall ha
ts and linen dusters, harlequins,clowns, devils, nuns, dominoes of every color,--red, white, blue, black;while above, the balconies bloomed like a rose-garden with pretty facesframed in lace veils or picturesque hats. Flowers were everywhere,wreathed along the house-fronts, tied to the horses' ears, in ladies'hands and gentlemen's button-holes, while venders went up and down thestreet bearing great trays of violets and carnations and camellias forsale. The air was full of cries and laughter, and the shrill calls ofmerchants advertising their wares,--candy, fruit, birds, lanterns, and_confetti_, the latter being merely lumps of lime, large or small, witha pea or a bean embedded in each lump to give it weight. Boxes full ofthis unpleasant confection were suspended in front of each balcony, withtin scoops to use in ladling it out and flinging it about. Everybodywore or carried a wire mask as protection against this white, incessantshower; and before long the air became full of a fine dust which hungabove the Corso like a mist, and filled the eyes and noses and clothesof all present with irritating particles.
Pasquino's Car was passing underneath just as Katy and Mrs. Ashearrived,--a gorgeous affair, hung with silken draperies, and bearing assymbol an enormous egg, in which the Carnival was supposed to be in actof incubation. A huge wagon followed in its wake, on which was a housesome sixteen feet square, whose sole occupant was a gentleman attendedby five servants, who kept him supplied with _confetti_, which heshowered liberally on the heads of the crowd. Then came a car in theshape of a steamboat, with a smoke-pipe and sails, over which flew theUnion Jack, and which was manned with a party wearing the dress ofBritish tars. The next wagon bore a company of jolly maskers equippedwith many-colored bladders, which they banged and rattled as they wentalong. Following this was a troupe of beautiful circus horses,cream-colored with scarlet trappings, or sorrel with blue, ridden byladies in pale green velvet laced with silver, or blue velvet and gold.Another car bore a bird-cage which was an exact imitation of St.Peter's, within which perched a lonely old parrot. This device evidentlyhad a political signification, for it was alternately hissed andapplauded as it went along. The whole scene was like a brilliant,rapidly shifting dream; and Katy, as she stood with lips apart and eyeswide open with wonderment and pleasure, forgot whether she was in thebody or not,--forgot everything except what was passing before her gaze.
She was roused by a stinging shower of lime-dust. An Englishman in thenext balcony had take courteous advantage of her preoccupation, and hadflung a scoopful of _confetti_ in her undefended face! It is generallyAnglo-Saxons of the less refined class, English or Americans, who dothese things at Carnival times. The national love of a rough joke comesto the surface, encouraged by the license of the moment, and all thegrace and prettiness of the festival vanish. Katy laughed, and dustedherself as well as she could, and took refuge behind her mask; while animble American boy of the party changed places with her, andthenceforward made that particular Englishman his special target, plyingsuch a lively and adroit shovel as to make Katy's assailant rue the hourwhen he evoked this national reprisal. His powdered head and ratherclumsy efforts to retaliate excited shouts of laughter from theadjoining balconies. The young American, fresh from tennis and collegeathletics, darted about and dodged with an agility impossible to hisheavily built foe; and each effective shot and parry on his side wasgreeted with little cries of applause and the clapping of hands on thepart of those who were watching the contest.
Exactly opposite them was a balcony hung with white silk, in which sat alady who seemed to be of some distinction; for every now and then anofficer in brilliant uniform, or some official covered with orders andstars, would be shown in by her servants, bow before her with the utmostdeference, and after a little conversation retire, kissing her glovedhand as he went. The lady was a beautiful person, with lustrous blackeyes and dark hair, over which a lace mantilla was fastened with diamondstars. She wore pale blue with white flowers, and altogether, as Katyafterward wrote to Clover, reminded her exactly of one of thosebeautiful princesses whom they used to play about in their childhood andquarrel over, because every one of them wanted to be the Princess andnobody else.
"I wonder who she is," said Mrs. Ashe in a low tone. "She might bealmost anybody from her looks. She keeps glancing across to us, Katy. Doyou know, I think she has taken a fancy to you."
Perhaps the lady had; for just then she turned her head and said a wordto one of her footmen, who immediately placed something in her hand. Itwas a little shining bonbonniere, and rising she threw it straight atKaty. Alas! it struck the edge of the balcony and fell into the streetbelow, where it was picked up by a ragged little peasant girl in a redjacket, who raised a pair of astonished eyes to the heavens, as if surethat the gift must have fallen straight from thence. Katy bent forwardto watch its fate, and went through a little pantomime of regret anddespair for the benefit of the opposite lady, who only laughed, andtaking another from her servant flung with better aim, so that it fellexactly at Katy's feet. This was a gilded box in the shape of amandolin, with sugar-plums tucked cunningly away inside. Katy kissedboth her hands in acknowledgment for the pretty toy, and tossed back abunch of roses which she happened to be wearing in her dress. After thatit seemed the chief amusement of the fair unknown to throw bonbons atKaty. Some went straight and some did not; but before the afternoonended, Katy had quite a lapful of confections and trifles,--roses,sugared almonds, a satin casket, a silvered box in the shape of ahorseshoe, a tiny cage with orange blossoms for birds on the perches, aminute gondola with a _marron glacee_ by way of passenger, and,prettiest of all, a little ivory harp strung with enamelled violetsinstead of wires. For all these favors she had nothing better to offer,in return, than a few long-tailed bonbons with gay streamers of ribbon.These the lady opposite caught very cleverly, rarely missing one, andkissing her hand in thanks each time.
"Isn't she exquisite?" demanded Katy, her eyes shining withexcitement. "Did you ever see any one so lovely in your life, Pollydear? I never did. There, now! she is buying those birds to set themfree, I do believe."
It was indeed so. A vender of larks had, by the aid of a long staff,thrust a cage full of wretched little prisoners up into the balcony; and"Katy's lady," as Mrs. Ashe called her, was paying for the whole. Asthey watched she opened the cage door, and with the sweetest look on herface encouraged the birds to fly away. The poor little creatures coweredand hesitated, not knowing at first what use to make of their newliberty; but at last one, the boldest of the company, hopped to the doorand with a glad, exultant chirp flew straight upward. Then the others,taking courage from his example, followed, and all were lost to view inthe twinkling of an eye.
"Oh, you angel!" cried Katy, leaning over the edge of the balcony andkissing both hands impulsively, "I never saw any one so sweet as you arein my life. Polly dear, I think carnivals are the most perfectlybewitching things in the world. How glad I am that this lasts a week,and that we can come every day. Won't Amy be delighted with thesebonbons! I do hope my lady will be here tomorrow."
How little she dreamed that she was never to enter that balcony again!How little can any of us see what lies before us till it comes so nearthat we cannot help seeing it, or shut our eyes, or turn away!
The next morning, almost as soon as it was light, Mrs. Ashe tapped atKaty's door. She was in her dressing-gown, and her eyes looked large andfrightened.
"Amy is ill," she cried. "She has been hot and feverish all night, andshe says that her head aches dreadfully. What shall I do, Katy? Weought to have a doctor at once, and I don't know the name even of anydoctor here."
Katy sat up in bed, and for one bewildered moment did not speak. Herbrain felt in a whirl of confusion; but presently it cleared, and shesaw what to do.
"I will write a note to Mrs. Sands," she said. Mrs. Sands was the wifeof the American Minister, and one of the few acquaintances they hadmade since they came to Rome. "You remember how nice she was the otherday, and how we liked her; and she has lived here so long that ofcourse she must know all about the doctors. Don't you think that is theb
est thing to do!"
"The very best," said Mrs. Ashe, looking relieved. "I wonder I did notthink of it myself, but I am so confused that I can't think. Write thenote at once, please, dear Katy. I will ring your bell for you, and thenI must hurry back to Amy."
Katy made haste with the note. The answer came promptly in half an hour,and by ten o'clock the physician recommended appeared. Dr. Hilary was adark little Italian to all appearance; but his mother had been aScotch-woman, and he spoke English very well,--a great comfort to poorMrs. Ashe, who knew not a word of Italian and not a great deal ofFrench. He felt Amy's pulse for a long time, and tested her temperature;but he gave no positive opinion, only left a prescription, and said thathe would call later in the day and should then be able to judge moreclearly what the attack was likely to prove.
Katy augured ill from this reserve. There was no talk of going to theCarnival that afternoon; no one had any heart for it. Instead, Katyspent the time in trying to recollect all she had ever heard about thecare of sick people,--what was to be done first and what next,--and insearching the shops for a feather pillow, which luxury Amy wasimperiously demanding. The pillows of Roman hotels are, as a generalthing, stuffed with wool, and very hard.
"I won't have this horrid pillow any longer," poor Amy was screaming."It's got bricks in it. It hurts the back of my neck. Take it away,mamma, and give me a nice soft American pillow. I won't have this aminute longer. Don't you hear me, mamma! Take it away!"
So, while Mrs. Ashe pacified Amy to the best of her ability, Katyhurried out in quest of the desired pillow. It proved almost anunattainable luxury; but at last, after a long search, she secured anair-cushion, a down cushion about twelve inches square, and one oldfeather pillow which had come from some auction, and had apparently lainfor years in the corner of the shop. When this was encased in a freshcover of Canton flannel, it did very well, and stilled Amy's complaintsa little; but all night she grew worse, and when Dr. Hilary came nextday, he was forced to utter plainly the dreaded words "Roman fever." Amywas in for an attack,--a light one he hoped it might be,--but they hadbetter know the truth and make ready for it.
Mrs. Ashe was utterly overwhelmed by this verdict, and for the firstbewildered moments did not know which way to turn. Katy, happily, kepta steadier head. She had the advantage of a little preparation ofthought, and had decided beforehand what it would be necessary to do"in case." Oh, that fateful "in case"! The doctor and she consultedtogether, and the result was that Katy sought out the padrona of theestablishment, and without hinting at the nature of Amy's attack,secured some rooms just vacated, which were at the end of a corridor,and a little removed from the rooms of other people. There was a largeroom with corner windows, a smaller one opening from it, and another,still smaller, close by, which would serve as a storeroom or might dofor the use of a nurse.
These rooms, without much consultation with Mrs. Ashe,--who seemedstunned and sat with her eyes fixed on Amy, just answering, "Certainly,dear, anything you say," when applied to,--Katy had arranged accordingto her own ideas of comfort and hygienic necessity, as learned from MissNightingale's excellent little book on nursing. From the larger room shehad the carpet, curtains, and nearly all the furniture taken away, thefloor scrubbed with hot soapsuds, and the bed pulled out from the wallto allow of a free circulation of air all round it. The smaller one shemade as comfortable as possible for the use of Mrs. Ashe, choosing forit the softest sofa and the best mattresses that were obtainable; forshe knew that her friend's strength was likely to be severely tried ifAmy's illness proved serious. When all was ready, Amy, well wrapped inher coverings, was carried down the entry and laid in the fresh bed withthe soft pillows about her; and Katy, as she went to and fro, conveyingclothes and books and filling drawers, felt that they were perhapsmaking arrangements for a long, hard trial of faith and spirits.
By the next day the necessity of a nurse became apparent, and in theafternoon Katy started out in a little hired carriage in search of one.She had a list of names, and went first to the English nurses; butfinding them all engaged, she ordered the coachman to drive to a conventwhere there was hope that a nursing sister might be procured.
Their route lay across the Corso. So utterly had the Carnival with allits gay follies vanished from her mind, that she was for a momentastonished at finding herself entangled in a motley crowd, so densethat the coachman was obliged to rein in his horses and stand still forsome time.
There were the same masks and dominos, the same picturesque peasantcostumes which had struck her as so gay and pretty only three daysbefore. The same jests and merry laughter filled the air, but somehowit all seemed out of tune. The sense of cold, lonely fear that hadtaken possession of her killed all capacity for merriment; theapprehension and solicitude of which her heart was full made the gaychattering and squeaking of the crowd sound harsh and unfeeling. Thebright colors affronted her dejection; she did not want to see them.She lay back in the carriage, trying to be patient under the detention,and half shut her eyes.
A shower of lime dust aroused her. It came from a party of burly figuresin white cotton dominos, whose carriage had been stayed by the crowdclose to her own. She signified by gestures that she had no _confetti_and no protection, that she "was not playing," in fact; but her appealmade no difference. The maskers kept on shovelling lime all over herhair and person and the carriage, and never tired of the sport till anopportune break in the procession enabled their vehicle to move on.
Katy was shaking their largesse from her dress and parasol as well asshe could, when an odd gibbering sound close to her ear, and thelaughter of the crowd attracted her attention to the back of thecarriage. A masker attired as a scarlet devil had climbed into the hood,and was now perched close behind her. She shook her head at him; but heonly shook his in return, and chattered and grimaced, and bent over tillhis fiery mask almost grazed her shoulder. There was no hope but in goodhumor, as she speedily realized; and recollecting that in hershopping-bag one or two of the Carnival bonbons still remained, she tookthese out and offered them in the hope of propitiating him. The fiendbit one to insure that it was made of sugar and not lime, while thecrowd laughed more than ever; then, seeming satisfied, he made Katy alittle speech in rapid Italian, of which she did not comprehend a word,kissed her hand, jumped down from the carriage and disappeared in thecrowd to her great relief.
Presently after that the driver spied an opening, of which he tookadvantage. They were across the Corso now, the roar and rush of theCarnival dying into silence as they drove rapidly on; and Katy, as shefinished wiping away the last of the lime dust, wiped some tears fromher cheeks as well.
"How hateful it all was!" she said to herself. Then she remembered asentence read somewhere, "How heavily roll the wheels of other people'sjoys when your heart is sorrowful!" and she realized that it is true.
The convent was propitious, and promised to send a sister next morning,with the proviso that every second day she was to come back to sleep andrest. Katy was too thankful for any aid to make objections, and drovehome with visions of saintly nuns with pure pale faces full of peace andresignation, such as she had read of in books, floating before her eyes.
Sister Ambrogia, when she appeared next day, did not exactly realizethese imaginations. She was a plump little person, with rosy cheeks, apair of demure black eyes, and a very obstinate mouth and chin. It soonappeared that natural inclination combined with the rules of her conventmade her theory of a nurse's duties a very limited one.
If Mrs. Ashe wished her to go down to the office with an order, she wastold: "We sisters care for the sick; we are not allowed to converse withporters and hotel people."
If Katy suggested that on the way home she should leave a prescriptionat the chemist's, it was: "We sisters are for nursing only; we do notvisit shops." And when she was asked if she could make beef tea, shereplied calmly but decisively, "We sisters are not cooks."
In fact, all that Sister Ambrogia seemed able or willing to do, beyondthe bathing of Amy's face and
brushing her hair, which she accomplishedhandily, was to sit by the bedside telling her rosary, or plying alittle ebony shuttle in the manufacture of a long strip of tatting. Eventhis amount of usefulness was interfered with by the fact that Amy, whoby this time was in a semi-delirious condition, had taken an aversion toher at the first glance, and was not willing to be left with her for asingle moment.
"I won't stay here alone with Sister Embroidery," she would cry, if hermother and Katy went into the next room for a moment's rest or a privateconsultation; "I hate Sister Embroidery! Come back, mamma, come backthis moment! She's making faces at me, and chattering just like an oldparrot, and I don't understand a word she says. Take Sister Embroideryaway, mamma, I tell you! Don't you hear me? Come back, I say!"
The little voice would be raised to a shrill scream; and Mrs. Ashe andKaty, hurrying back, would find Amy sitting up on her pillow with wet,scarlet-flushed cheeks and eyes bright with fever, ready to throwherself out of bed; while, calm as Mabel, whose curly head lay on thepillow beside her little mistress, Sister Ambrogia, unaware of theintricacies of the English language, was placidly telling her beads andmuttering prayers to herself. Some of these prayers, I do not doubt,related to Amy's recovery if not to her conversion, and were well meant;but they were rather irritating under the circumstances!