"The brutes! What a lovely spot! Must be the place where Pharaoh's
daughter found Moses in the bulrushes!"
"Or where Adam found Eve in the garden of Eden?"
They looked at each other and smiled.
"What a surprise that must have been to him," said Roma. "Whatever did
he think she was, I wonder?"
"An angel who had come down in the moonlight and forgotten to go up in
the morning!"
"Nonsense! He would know in a moment she was a woman."
"Think of it! She was the only woman in the world for him!"
"And fancy! He was the only man!"
The dinner was one long delight. Even its drawbacks were no
disadvantage. The food was bad, and it was badly cooked and badly
served, but nothing mattered.
"Only one fork for all these dishes?" asked David Rossi.
"That's the best of it," said Roma. "You only get one dirty one."
Suddenly she dropped knife and fork, and held up both hands. "I forgot!"
"What?"
"I was to be little Roma all day to-day."
"Why, so you are, and so you have been."
"That cannot be, or you would call her by her name, you know."
"I'll do so the moment she calls me by mine."
"That's not fair," said Roma, and her face flushed up, for the wine of
life had risen to her eyes.
In a vineyard below a girl working among the orange trees was singing
stornelli. It was a song of a mother to her son. He had gone away from
the old roof-tree, but he would come back some day. His new home was
bright and big, but the old hearthstone would draw him home. Beautiful
ladies loved him, but the white-haired mother would kiss him again.
They listened for a short dreaming space, and their laughter ceased and
their eyes grew moist. Then they called for the bill, and the old man
with the evil face came up with a forced smile from a bank that had
clearly no assets of that kind to draw upon.
"You've been a long time in this house, landlord," said David Rossi.
"Very long time, Excellency," said the man.
"You came from the Ciociaria."
"Why, yes, I did," said the man, with a look of surprise. "I was poor
then, and later on I lived in the caves and grottoes of Monte Parioli."