t his head throughout:
it was seen that he wished to present his wife. Present her! Enthusiasm
grew frenzied; he had to battle his way down the steps to regain her
side. He lifted her lightly down; hand in hand they went up the steps
again. Molly excelled herself, was the wonder of the whole city. How she
curtsied to their lordships--what a figure she had for that grace--how
tall, how supple, and how slim! When she gave her rosy cheek to each in
turn, there was a kind of caught sob audible in the crowd. The
simplicity of the act brought tears to tender eyes: men laughed or
looked haggard, according as the trouble took them; women, more at home
with tears, clung to each other as they cried. A marvel all believed
her--an angel clean from heaven; the kiss of peace, _la bocca della
Carita_! A young Dominican became inspired; he showed the whites of his
eyes, he spumed at the lips, began to mutter, with gurglings in the
throat. At last his words broke strangling from him--"O mouth of
singular favour! O lips of heavenly dew!" he stuttered, with a finger on
high seesawing to the rhythm: "O starry eyes conversant with the aspect
of angels!" He dropped down plump in a fit, barely heard at the palace
door; but all the square surged with his cry--"O mouth of singular
favour! O starry eyes! Evviva Madonna!"

Men and women all told, Molly must have been forty times kissed. Twice
forty times would not have sufficed for the candidates who jostled,
strained, and prayed between the soldiers' pikes below the steps. It
would be difficult to say which sex her pretty artlessness pleased the
more: she made the women cry, the old men prophesy, the young men dream
dreams. Certainly, there was nobody who thought ill of her for a
performance so glaringly counter to Italian ways, whose men kiss each
other while they keep their women at home. The thing was so transparent,
done in such pure good faith, there was no room for judgment in it. She
went among that people as, in these days, a child still might go. To
those bullet-headed captains, grim and shaven close; to those painted
great ladies, whose bare necks looked the more naked for their jewels;
to those cruddled, be-robed old men; to the dapper sons of them; to
their stiff-laced daughters--Molly went blushing, smiling, shy, and
glad, and to each she gave her fresh cheek and the balm of her English
lips. O mouth of singular favour! O starry eyes! She bereft them of
compliments by her speechless