joki wohnzimmer bar
chapter ii: in santa croce with no baedeker it was pleasant to wake up in florence, toopen the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look cleanthough they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins andbassoons. it was pleasant, too, to fling wide thewindows, pinching the fingers in unfamiliar fastenings, to lean out into sunshine withbeautiful hills and trees and marble churches opposite, and close below, the arno, gurgling against the embankment ofthe road.
over the river men were at work with spadesand sieves on the sandy foreshore, and on the river was a boat, also diligentlyemployed for some mysterious end. an electric tram came rushing underneaththe window. no one was inside it, except one tourist;but its platforms were overflowing with italians, who preferred to stand. children tried to hang on behind, and theconductor, with no malice, spat in their faces to make them let go. then soldiers appeared--good-looking,undersized men--wearing each a knapsack covered with mangy fur, and a great-coatwhich had been cut for some larger soldier.
beside them walked officers, lookingfoolish and fierce, and before them went little boys, turning somersaults in timewith the band. the tramcar became entangled in theirranks, and moved on painfully, like a caterpillar in a swarm of ants.one of the little boys fell down, and some white bullocks came out of an archway. indeed, if it had not been for the goodadvice of an old man who was selling button-hooks, the road might never have gotclear. over such trivialities as these many avaluable hour may slip away, and the traveller who has gone to italy to studythe tactile values of giotto, or the
corruption of the papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky andthe men and women who live under it. so it was as well that miss bartlett shouldtap and come in, and having commented on lucy's leaving the door unlocked, and onher leaning out of the window before she was fully dressed, should urge her to hasten herself, or the best of the daywould be gone. by the time lucy was ready her cousin haddone her breakfast, and was listening to the clever lady among the crumbs. a conversation then ensued, on notunfamiliar lines.
miss bartlett was, after all, a wee bittired, and thought they had better spend the morning settling in; unless lucy wouldat all like to go out? lucy would rather like to go out, as it washer first day in florence, but, of course, she could go alone.miss bartlett could not allow this. of course she would accompany lucyeverywhere. oh, certainly not; lucy would stop with hercousin. oh, no! that would never do. oh, yes!at this point the clever lady broke in. "if it is mrs. grundy who is troubling you,i do assure you that you can neglect the
good person. being english, miss honeychurch will beperfectly safe. italians understand. a dear friend of mine, contessa baroncelli,has two daughters, and when she cannot send a maid to school with them, she lets themgo in sailor-hats instead. every one takes them for english, you see,especially if their hair is strained tightly behind."miss bartlett was unconvinced by the safety of contessa baroncelli's daughters. she was determined to take lucy herself,her head not being so very bad.
the clever lady then said that she wasgoing to spend a long morning in santa croce, and if lucy would come too, shewould be delighted. "i will take you by a dear dirty back way,miss honeychurch, and if you bring me luck, we shall have an adventure." lucy said that this was most kind, and atonce opened the baedeker, to see where santa croce was."tut, tut! miss lucy! i hope we shall soon emancipate you frombaedeker. he does but touch the surface of things.as to the true italy--he does not even
dream of it. the true italy is only to be found bypatient observation." this sounded very interesting, and lucyhurried over her breakfast, and started with her new friend in high spirits. italy was coming at last.the cockney signora and her works had vanished like a bad dream. miss lavish--for that was the clever lady'sname--turned to the right along the sunny lung' arno.how delightfully warm! but a wind down the side streets cut like aknife, didn't it?
ponte alle grazie--particularlyinteresting, mentioned by dante. san miniato--beautiful as well asinteresting; the crucifix that kissed a murderer--miss honeychurch would rememberthe story. the men on the river were fishing. (untrue; but then, so is most information.)then miss lavish darted under the archway of the white bullocks, and she stopped, andshe cried: "a smell! a true florentine smell! every city, let me teach you, has its ownsmell." "is it a very nice smell?" said lucy, whohad inherited from her mother a distaste to
dirt. "one doesn't come to italy for niceness,"was the retort; "one comes for life. buon giorno!buon giorno!" bowing right and left. "look at that adorable wine-cart! how the driver stares at us, dear, simplesoul!" so miss lavish proceeded through thestreets of the city of florence, short, fidgety, and playful as a kitten, thoughwithout a kitten's grace. it was a treat for the girl to be with anyone so clever and so cheerful; and a blue military cloak, such as an italian officerwears, only increased the sense of
festivity. "buon giorno!take the word of an old woman, miss lucy: you will never repent of a little civilityto your inferiors. that is the true democracy. though i am a real radical as well.there, now you're shocked." "indeed, i'm not!" exclaimed lucy."we are radicals, too, out and out. my father always voted for mr. gladstone,until he was so dreadful about ireland." "i see, i see.and now you have gone over to the enemy." "oh, please--!
if my father was alive, i am sure he wouldvote radical again now that ireland is all right. and as it is, the glass over our front doorwas broken last election, and freddy is sure it was the tories; but mother saysnonsense, a tramp." "shameful! a manufacturing district, i suppose?""no--in the surrey hills. about five miles from dorking, looking overthe weald." miss lavish seemed interested, andslackened her trot. "what a delightful part; i know it so well.it is full of the very nicest people.
do you know sir harry otway--a radical ifever there was?" "very well indeed.""and old mrs. butterworth the philanthropist?" "why, she rents a field of us!how funny!" miss lavish looked at the narrow ribbon ofsky, and murmured: "oh, you have property in surrey?" "hardly any," said lucy, fearful of beingthought a snob. "only thirty acres--just the garden, alldownhill, and some fields." miss lavish was not disgusted, and said itwas just the size of her aunt's suffolk
estate.italy receded. they tried to remember the last name oflady louisa some one, who had taken a house near summer street the other year, but shehad not liked it, which was odd of her. and just as miss lavish had got the name,she broke off and exclaimed: "bless us!bless us and save us! we've lost the way." certainly they had seemed a long time inreaching santa croce, the tower of which had been plainly visible from the landingwindow. but miss lavish had said so much aboutknowing her florence by heart, that lucy
had followed her with no misgivings."lost! lost! my dear miss lucy, during our politicaldiatribes we have taken a wrong turning. how those horrid conservatives would jeerat us! what are we to do? two lone females in an unknown town.now, this is what i call an adventure." lucy, who wanted to see santa croce,suggested, as a possible solution, that they should ask the way there. "oh, but that is the word of a craven!and no, you are not, not, not to look at your baedeker.give it to me; i shan't let you carry it.
we will simply drift." accordingly they drifted through a seriesof those grey-brown streets, neither commodious nor picturesque, in which theeastern quarter of the city abounds. lucy soon lost interest in the discontentof lady louisa, and became discontented herself.for one ravishing moment italy appeared. she stood in the square of the annunziataand saw in the living terra-cotta those divine babies whom no cheap reproductioncan ever stale. there they stood, with their shining limbsbursting from the garments of charity, and their strong white arms extended againstcirclets of heaven.
lucy thought she had never seen anythingmore beautiful; but miss lavish, with a shriek of dismay, dragged her forward,declaring that they were out of their path now by at least a mile. the hour was approaching at which thecontinental breakfast begins, or rather ceases, to tell, and the ladies bought somehot chestnut paste out of a little shop, because it looked so typical. it tasted partly of the paper in which itwas wrapped, partly of hair oil, partly of the great unknown. but it gave them strength to drift intoanother piazza, large and dusty, on the
farther side of which rose a black-and-white facade of surpassing ugliness. miss lavish spoke to it dramatically. it was santa croce.the adventure was over. "stop a minute; let those two people go on,or i shall have to speak to them. i do detest conventional intercourse. nasty! they are going into the church, too.oh, the britisher abroad!" "we sat opposite them at dinner last night.they have given us their rooms. they were so very kind." "look at their figures!" laughed misslavish.
"they walk through my italy like a pair ofcows. it's very naughty of me, but i would liketo set an examination paper at dover, and turn back every tourist who couldn't passit." "what would you ask us?" miss lavish laid her hand pleasantly onlucy's arm, as if to suggest that she, at all events, would get full marks. in this exalted mood they reached the stepsof the great church, and were about to enter it when miss lavish stopped,squeaked, flung up her arms, and cried: "there goes my local-colour box!
i must have a word with him!" and in a moment she was away over thepiazza, her military cloak flapping in the wind; nor did she slacken speed till shecaught up an old man with white whiskers, and nipped him playfully upon the arm. lucy waited for nearly ten minutes.then she began to get tired. the beggars worried her, the dust blew inher eyes, and she remembered that a young girl ought not to loiter in public places. she descended slowly into the piazza withthe intention of rejoining miss lavish, who was really almost too original.
but at that moment miss lavish and herlocal-colour box moved also, and disappeared down a side street, bothgesticulating largely. tears of indignation came to lucy's eyespartly because miss lavish had jilted her, partly because she had taken her baedeker.how could she find her way home? how could she find her way about in santacroce? her first morning was ruined, and she mightnever be in florence again. a few minutes ago she had been all highspirits, talking as a woman of culture, and half persuading herself that she was fullof originality. now she entered the church depressed andhumiliated, not even able to remember
whether it was built by the franciscans orthe dominicans. of course, it must be a wonderful building. but how like a barn!and how very cold! of course, it contained frescoes by giotto,in the presence of whose tactile values she was capable of feeling what was proper. but who was to tell her which they were?she walked about disdainfully, unwilling to be enthusiastic over monuments of uncertainauthorship or date. there was no one even to tell her which, ofall the sepulchral slabs that paved the nave and transepts, was the one that wasreally beautiful, the one that had been
most praised by mr. ruskin. then the pernicious charm of italy workedon her, and, instead of acquiring information, she began to be happy. she puzzled out the italian notices--thenotices that forbade people to introduce dogs into the church--the notice thatprayed people, in the interest of health and out of respect to the sacred edifice inwhich they found themselves, not to spit. she watched the tourists; their noses wereas red as their baedekers, so cold was santa croce. she beheld the horrible fate that overtookthree papists--two he-babies and a she-
baby--who began their career by sousingeach other with the holy water, and then proceeded to the machiavelli memorial,dripping but hallowed. advancing towards it very slowly and fromimmense distances, they touched the stone with their fingers, with theirhandkerchiefs, with their heads, and then retreated. what could this mean?they did it again and again. then lucy realized that they had mistakenmachiavelli for some saint, hoping to acquire virtue. punishment followed quickly.the smallest he-baby stumbled over one of
the sepulchral slabs so much admired by mr.ruskin, and entangled his feet in the features of a recumbent bishop. protestant as she was, lucy darted forward.she was too late. he fell heavily upon the prelate's upturnedtoes. "hateful bishop!" exclaimed the voice ofold mr. emerson, who had darted forward also."hard in life, hard in death. go out into the sunshine, little boy, andkiss your hand to the sun, for that is where you ought to be.intolerable bishop!" the child screamed frantically at thesewords, and at these dreadful people who
picked him up, dusted him, rubbed hisbruises, and told him not to be superstitious. "look at him!" said mr. emerson to lucy."here's a mess: a baby hurt, cold, and frightened!but what else can you expect from a church?" the child's legs had become as melting wax.each time that old mr. emerson and lucy set it erect it collapsed with a roar. fortunately an italian lady, who ought tohave been saying her prayers, came to the rescue.
by some mysterious virtue, which mothersalone possess, she stiffened the little boy's back-bone and imparted strength tohis knees. he stood. still gibbering with agitation, he walkedaway. "you are a clever woman," said mr. emerson."you have done more than all the relics in the world. i am not of your creed, but i do believe inthose who make their fellow-creatures happy.there is no scheme of the universe--" he paused for a phrase.
"niente," said the italian lady, andreturned to her prayers. "i'm not sure she understands english,"suggested lucy. in her chastened mood she no longerdespised the emersons. she was determined to be gracious to them,beautiful rather than delicate, and, if possible, to erase miss bartlett's civilityby some gracious reference to the pleasant rooms. "that woman understands everything," wasmr. emerson's reply. "but what are you doing here?are you doing the church? are you through with the church?"
"no," cried lucy, remembering hergrievance. "i came here with miss lavish, who was toexplain everything; and just by the door-- it is too bad!--she simply ran away, andafter waiting quite a time, i had to come in by myself." "why shouldn't you?" said mr. emerson."yes, why shouldn't you come by yourself?" said the son, addressing the young lady forthe first time. "but miss lavish has even taken awaybaedeker." "baedeker?" said mr. emerson."i'm glad it's that you minded. it's worth minding, the loss of a baedeker.
that's worth minding."lucy was puzzled. she was again conscious of some new idea,and was not sure whither it would lead her. "if you've no baedeker," said the son,"you'd better join us." was this where the idea would lead?she took refuge in her dignity. "thank you very much, but i could not thinkof that. i hope you do not suppose that i came tojoin on to you. i really came to help with the child, andto thank you for so kindly giving us your rooms last night.i hope that you have not been put to any great inconvenience."
"my dear," said the old man gently, "ithink that you are repeating what you have heard older people say.you are pretending to be touchy; but you are not really. stop being so tiresome, and tell me insteadwhat part of the church you want to see. to take you to it will be a real pleasure."now, this was abominably impertinent, and she ought to have been furious. but it is sometimes as difficult to loseone's temper as it is difficult at other times to keep it.lucy could not get cross. mr. emerson was an old man, and surely agirl might humour him.
on the other hand, his son was a young man,and she felt that a girl ought to be offended with him, or at all events beoffended before him. it was at him that she gazed beforereplying. "i am not touchy, i hope.it is the giottos that i want to see, if you will kindly tell me which they are." the son nodded.with a look of sombre satisfaction, he led the way to the peruzzi chapel.there was a hint of the teacher about him. she felt like a child in school who hadanswered a question rightly. the chapel was already filled with anearnest congregation, and out of them rose
the voice of a lecturer, directing them howto worship giotto, not by tactful valuations, but by the standards of thespirit. "remember," he was saying, "the facts aboutthis church of santa croce; how it was built by faith in the full fervour ofmedievalism, before any taint of the renaissance had appeared. observe how giotto in these frescoes--now,unhappily, ruined by restoration--is untroubled by the snares of anatomy andperspective. could anything be more majestic, morepathetic, beautiful, true? how little, we feel, avails knowledge andtechnical cleverness against a man who
truly feels!" "no!" exclaimed mr. emerson, in much tooloud a voice for church. "remember nothing of the sort!built by faith indeed! that simply means the workmen weren't paidproperly. and as for the frescoes, i see no truth inthem. look at that fat man in blue! he must weigh as much as i do, and he isshooting into the sky like an air balloon." he was referring to the fresco of the"ascension of st. john." inside, the lecturer's voice faltered, aswell it might.
the audience shifted uneasily, and so didlucy. she was sure that she ought not to be withthese men; but they had cast a spell over her.they were so serious and so strange that she could not remember how to behave. "now, did this happen, or didn't it?yes or no?" george replied:"it happened like this, if it happened at all. i would rather go up to heaven by myselfthan be pushed by cherubs; and if i got there i should like my friends to lean outof it, just as they do here."
"you will never go up," said his father. "you and i, dear boy, will lie at peace inthe earth that bore us, and our names will disappear as surely as our work survives." "some of the people can only see the emptygrave, not the saint, whoever he is, going up.it did happen like that, if it happened at all." "pardon me," said a frigid voice."the chapel is somewhat small for two parties.we will incommode you no longer." the lecturer was a clergyman, and hisaudience must be also his flock, for they
held prayer-books as well as guide-books intheir hands. they filed out of the chapel in silence. amongst them were the two little old ladiesof the pension bertolini--miss teresa and miss catherine alan."stop!" cried mr. emerson. "there's plenty of room for us all. stop!"the procession disappeared without a word. soon the lecturer could be heard in thenext chapel, describing the life of st. francis. "george, i do believe that clergyman is thebrixton curate."
george went into the next chapel andreturned, saying "perhaps he is. i don't remember." "then i had better speak to him and remindhim who i am. it's that mr. eager.why did he go? did we talk too loud? how vexatious.i shall go and say we are sorry. hadn't i better?then perhaps he will come back." "he will not come back," said george. but mr. emerson, contrite and unhappy,hurried away to apologize to the rev.
cuthbert eager. lucy, apparently absorbed in a lunette,could hear the lecture again interrupted, the anxious, aggressive voice of the oldman, the curt, injured replies of his opponent. the son, who took every little contretempsas if it were a tragedy, was listening also."my father has that effect on nearly every one," he informed her. "he will try to be kind.""i hope we all try," said she, smiling nervously."because we think it improves our
characters. but he is kind to people because he lovesthem; and they find him out, and are offended, or frightened." "how silly of them!" said lucy, though inher heart she sympathized; "i think that a kind action done tactfully--""tact!" he threw up his head in disdain. apparently she had given the wrong answer.she watched the singular creature pace up and down the chapel.for a young man his face was rugged, and-- until the shadows fell upon it--hard.
enshadowed, it sprang into tenderness.she saw him once again at rome, on the ceiling of the sistine chapel, carrying aburden of acorns. healthy and muscular, he yet gave her thefeeling of greyness, of tragedy that might only find solution in the night.the feeling soon passed; it was unlike her to have entertained anything so subtle. born of silence and of unknown emotion, itpassed when mr. emerson returned, and she could re-enter the world of rapid talk,which was alone familiar to her. "were you snubbed?" asked his sontranquilly. "but we have spoilt the pleasure of i don'tknow how many people.
they won't come back." "...full of innate sympathy...quickness toperceive good in others...vision of the brotherhood of man..."scraps of the lecture on st. francis came floating round the partition wall. "don't let us spoil yours," he continued tolucy. "have you looked at those saints?""yes," said lucy. "they are lovely. do you know which is the tombstone that ispraised in ruskin?" he did not know, and suggested that theyshould try to guess it.
george, rather to her relief, refused tomove, and she and the old man wandered not unpleasantly about santa croce, which,though it is like a barn, has harvested many beautiful things inside its walls. there were also beggars to avoid and guidesto dodge round the pillars, and an old lady with her dog, and here and there a priestmodestly edging to his mass through the groups of tourists. but mr. emerson was only half interested.he watched the lecturer, whose success he believed he had impaired, and then heanxiously watched his son. "why will he look at that fresco?" he saiduneasily.
"i saw nothing in it.""i like giotto," she replied. "it is so wonderful what they say about histactile values. though i like things like the della robbiababies better." "so you ought. a baby is worth a dozen saints.and my baby's worth the whole of paradise, and as far as i can see he lives in hell."lucy again felt that this did not do. "in hell," he repeated. "he's unhappy.""oh, dear!" said lucy. "how can he be unhappy when he is strongand alive?
what more is one to give him? and think how he has been brought up--freefrom all the superstition and ignorance that lead men to hate one another in thename of god. with such an education as that, i thoughthe was bound to grow up happy." she was no theologian, but she felt thathere was a very foolish old man, as well as a very irreligious one. she also felt that her mother might notlike her talking to that kind of person, and that charlotte would object moststrongly. "what are we to do with him?" he asked.
"he comes out for his holiday to italy, andbehaves--like that; like the little child who ought to have been playing, and whohurt himself upon the tombstone. eh? what did you say?" lucy had made no suggestion.suddenly he said: "now don't be stupid over this. i don't require you to fall in love with myboy, but i do think you might try and understand him.you are nearer his age, and if you let yourself go i am sure you are sensible. you might help me.he has known so few women, and you have the
time.you stop here several weeks, i suppose? but let yourself go. you are inclined to get muddled, if i mayjudge from last night. let yourself go. pull out from the depths those thoughtsthat you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning ofthem. by understanding george you may learn tounderstand yourself. it will be good for both of you."to this extraordinary speech lucy found no answer.
"i only know what it is that's wrong withhim; not why it is." "and what is it?" asked lucy fearfully,expecting some harrowing tale. "the old trouble; things won't fit." "what things?""the things of the universe. it is quite true.they don't." "oh, mr. emerson, whatever do you mean?" in his ordinary voice, so that she scarcelyrealized he was quoting poetry, he said: "'from far, from eve and morning, and yon twelve-winded sky, the stuff of life to knit me blew hither: here am i'
george and i both know this, but why doesit distress him? we know that we come from the winds, andthat we shall return to them; that all life is perhaps a knot, a tangle, a blemish inthe eternal smoothness. but why should this make us unhappy? let us rather love one another, and workand rejoice. i don't believe in this world sorrow."miss honeychurch assented. "then make my boy think like us. make him realize that by the side of theeverlasting why there is a yes--a transitory yes if you like, but a yes."suddenly she laughed; surely one ought to
laugh. a young man melancholy because the universewouldn't fit, because life was a tangle or a wind, or a yes, or something!"i'm very sorry," she cried. "you'll think me unfeeling, but--but--"then she became matronly. "oh, but your son wants employment.has he no particular hobby? why, i myself have worries, but i cangenerally forget them at the piano; and collecting stamps did no end of good for mybrother. perhaps italy bores him; you ought to trythe alps or the lakes." the old man's face saddened, and he touchedher gently with his hand.
this did not alarm her; she thought thather advice had impressed him and that he was thanking her for it. indeed, he no longer alarmed her at all;she regarded him as a kind thing, but quite silly. her feelings were as inflated spirituallyas they had been an hour ago esthetically, before she lost baedeker. the dear george, now striding towards themover the tombstones, seemed both pitiable and absurd.he approached, his face in the shadow. he said:
"miss bartlett.""oh, good gracious me!" said lucy, suddenly collapsing and again seeing the whole oflife in a new perspective. "where? where?""in the nave." "i see.those gossiping little miss alans must have--" she checked herself. "poor girl!" exploded mr. emerson."poor girl!" she could not let this pass, for it wasjust what she was feeling herself. "poor girl?
i fail to understand the point of thatremark. i think myself a very fortunate girl, iassure you. i'm thoroughly happy, and having a splendidtime. pray don't waste time mourning over me.there's enough sorrow in the world, isn't there, without trying to invent it. good-bye.thank you both so much for all your kindness.ah, yes! there does come my cousin. a delightful morning! santa croce is a wonderful church."she joined her cousin.