A modern trio in an old townHaviland-Taylor, Katharine
General
A modern trio in an old town
Haviland-Taylor, Katharine
Americans -- Italy -- Fiction; Florence (Italy) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
“Can you get more than one frock with that?” asked Sam, and I told him
that she certainly could, for only the day before Leslie and I had
shopped. She had helped me to buy the things I was going to take home
to Mother, Roberta, the twins, and Daddy, and we had got lovely things
at most reasonable prices. Hand-embroidered, hand-made night dresses
could be bought for a dollar and a half; waist patterns wonderfully
embroidered, for two dollars; laces (and the laces were _beautiful_),
for about half what one would pay at home--I had bought Mother a set
of broad Irish lace collars and cuffs for four dollars--and quite
everything was like that, one paid less, and got more.
“Leslie got uncurled ostrich feather fans for some of her friends,” I
went on, “she said for half what she would have to pay for the cheapest
at home--they were twelve and fifteen dollars, I think--and she got
leather frames and hand-bound books too, that were beautiful.” Then I
told Sam that I had found for Father a handtooled card case that I
wanted him to see, and he said he wanted to, and then he said he was
miserable.
“Why?” I asked, and he told me because I was going away.
“That won’t stop our being friends,” I answered, and I pretended a
cheerfulness that I really didn’t feel.
“No,” he answered, “it mustn’t. I’m going to work hard,” he continued,
“and I’m coming over to New York in a year or so for a one man show--”
(I suppose I looked as if I didn’t understand--for I didn’t--and he
explained) “That means,” he said, “an exhibition of my work, all by
itself--Mr. Wake, bless him, thinks I can swing it, and when I come
over I’ll come to see you. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“Will you _really_?” I questioned, because I did want to be very sure,
and he said he really would.
“But then,” I said, “you’ll probably go again--”
“Um, probably. . . . I used to travel with a banjo tucked under one
arm, and a palette under the other. . . . But I see where, in a couple
of years, things are going to be more complicated, _if I can manage
what I want to_--”
I didn’t understand him, but I let it go, because Mr. Wake and Viola
had come out of the Cathedral which dominates the wind-swept Piazza
at Fiesole, and Mr. Wake came over to tell Sam to take me in and show
me the bust of a Bishop and his monument that were made by Mino da
Fiesole, and that Mr. Wake liked very much.
We went in, past the beggars who sat on the steps with open, upturned
palms, past an old lady who was selling baskets, and swore at us
dreadfully when we refused to buy them--among her swearing was a curse
which consists of “Darn the fishes,” and that is very, very wicked in
Italian!--and then, inside we saw the--Sarcophagus, Sam called it, and
loitered around, and then went back out into the glare and stifling
heat that was over everything outside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account