looking at the grand robes he wore, and at the priests who came with
him, and watching the lighted tapers blow about in the wind, for the
window was open and there was a strong draught, suddenly I felt a pain
in my head which was worse than anything I had felt before,--a dreadful
pain, which made me feel giddy and confused. I felt myself sinking, and
I suppose I must have cried out, for I remember that some one lifted me
and put a wet cloth on my head. The last thing I saw was Teresina's
pale, quiet face, with the white and gold confirmation ribbon bound
about her brows. I never saw her again. When I came to myself, days
afterward, the corner where her bed used to stand was empty, and I knew,
without asking, that she was in Paradise.

Flavia and Fausta and I got well over it, but much disfigured, as you
see; and yet God is good, and has sent me as kind and loving a husband
as if I had been the most beautiful person in the world.

Well, the time went on, just as before, until Flavia was old enough to
be apprenticed to Madama Castagna, the grand dressmaker. She had always
been a good, steady, hard-working girl, and, thanks to the good Doratei
Sisters, she sewed so beautifully that very soon Madama allowed her
twenty centimes a day. She had to work from eight till eight; but of
course she could not expect more than twenty centimes while she was
learning.

Fausta was not so fortunate. She was a good girl, and the cleverest and
quickest of us all,--yes, indeed, cleverer than I am, although the
signora does think so well of me,--but she changed too often. First, she
wanted to learn how to bind shoes (I forgot to say that they taught that
in the convent), and so, while the rest of us were learning to sew and
knit, she was binding shoes. Then, suddenly, she thought she would like
to learn to weave, and she went to her godmother, the Contessa Minia,
and told her so. The contessa was good and generous, and she gave her a
loom, and Sister Annunziata taught her to weave. But just at the time
that Fausta ought to have been apprenticed, the silk-trade, which, as I
said before, had been going down for several years, failed altogether,
and Fausta had to sell her loom for what it would bring. Then she
thought that she would like to learn lace-mending: so the contessa got
her a lace-cushion, and apprenticed her to a lace-mender for four years.
Just as her time was out, poor Fausta had a bad fall, broke her right
arm and injured her le