And she turns, thus rejecting the new love, to the "Son and Mother, gentle pair," who commune at evening in the turret: what prevents her being Luigi? "Let me be Luigi! If I only knew What was my mother's face--my father, too!" For Pippa has never seen either, knows not who either was, nor whence each came. And just because, thus ignorant, she cannot truly figure to herself such love, she now rejects in turn this third pretending-- "Nay, if you come to that, best love of all Is God's;" --and she will be Monsignor! To-night he will bless the home of his dead brother, and God will bless in turn "That heart which beats, those eyes which mildly burn With love for all men! I, to-night at least, Would be that holy and beloved priest." Now all the weighing of love with love is over; she has chosen, and already has the proof of having chosen rightly, already seems to share in God's love, for there comes back to memory an ancient New-Year's hymn-- "All service ranks the same with God." No one can work on this earth except as God wills-- ". . . God's puppets, best and worst, Are we; there is no last or first." And we must not talk of "small events": none exceeds another in greatness. . . . The revelation has come to her. Not Ottima nor Phene, not Luigi and his mother, not even the holy and beloved priest, ranks higher in God's eyes than she, the little work-girl-- "I will pass each, and see their happiness, And envy none--being just as great, no doubt, Useful to men, and dear to God, as they!" * * * * * And so, laughing at herself once more because she cares "so mightily" for her one day, but still insistent that the sun shall shine, she sketches her outing-- "Down the grass path grey with dew, Under the pine-wood, blind with boughs, Where the swallow never flew, Nor yet cicala dared carouse, No, dared carouse--" But breaks off, breathless, in the singing for which through the whole region she is famed, leaves the "large mean airy chamber," enters the little street of Asolo--and begins her Day. II. MORNING: OTTIMA