And how many years have Assunta?" she asked. Her heart grew light. you, "How pleased Assunta will be!" She was so pleased with herself for thinking of it, that she shut up the other thirteen gowns gayly and went in to dinner, still smiling. There is nothing so sweet, the sages tell us, as a self-approving conscience. One good action begets another. "I finish forty, Signorina." In her turn the Signorina stared; twelve years only between herself and the worn, wrinkled, thin-haired, almost toothless woman before her. "Yes, Signorina," went on Assunta, tranquilly. "Forty years ago my mother put me in the world. I was born on the roadside, the Signorina remembers, and she carried me home in her apron, so!" gathering up her blue apron to illustrate. Then letting it fall again: "And the Signorina has twenty-eight years! Who would believe it? "I think I should like some very nice strawberries for my festa-if you can go to the city for me," said the Signorina, to change the subject. "Signorina, I am here to obey you," replied Assunta, gravely, in spite of her inward emotion. A whole franc toward the boots! And while she was hurrying down the hill and over the white road, the Signorina, in the midst of her pretty gifts and the pleasant mood they awakened, was experiencing an unwonted fit of benevolence. "Poor Assunta!" she thought, "I should like to give her something for her festa-if I were not so poor;" and she fell to wondering what in all the world Assunta would best like to have. Not that edition of Shelley, surely, which had made her own eyes sparkle with delight, nor yet the dainty linen worked by dear hands; Assunta wanted nothing for herself. "I know!" thought the Signorina, with conviction. She went into her room and sitting down before her bureau, drew out one by one the fourteen gowns which were its contents. "I will certainly do it," she said to herself, and after some pondering she selected the plainest and the oldest—a white cashmere-and spread it out on her lap. The smile of satisfaction deepened on her lips. "I should not wear it six times more and even if I do miss it," she said to herself, generously, "I should be willing to make a sacrifice now and then. I will certainly do it." "Does Gemma like strawberries?" asked the Signorina, languidly, as she filled her saucer for the third time, while Assunta stood beaming near. "Chi lo sa?" answered Assunta, tranquilly. At this remarkable reply the Signorina raised her eyes in astonishment. "She has never tasted them," explained Assunta. They are so dear— the Signorina knows "Never tasted them!" repeated the Signorina. "Do not you have fruitall the fruit you want-in Tuscany?' "Oh, there is plenty of fruit, Signorina," responded Assunta, cheeringly, "but for poor people it costs too much. Sometimes," she added, we have tasted figs; yes, more than once in my life have I eaten them fresh" (the Signorina had an instant vision of them, purple and luscious, and sixteen for a soldo), "but dried never; as for oranges and other fruits-the Signorina knows what they cost-I and my people have never tasted them. Are not the strawberries good, that the Signorina is leaving them?" "Give them to Gemma," said the Signorina, with a gesture of loathing, walking away. Presently she returned with something white in her arms, but no triumph in her expression. "Assunta," she said, hesitatingly, "if you can use this for Giulia "—she laid it on the sofa. selfishly; Gemma, coughing painfully, came and looked wistfully-hers had not been so fine nearly, and this would have many, many tucks. In their hearts all had begun to despair, but now that the dress had found itself the rest would surely follow. Giulia flew back to her frame, and her fingers flew also with fresh activity; from time to time she crept away to peep at the wonderful dress all wrapped away in paper, and then flew back again. Delia began a new fan, and Gemmapale Gemma-took up the straw in her thin fingers and began to weave a little basket for the Signorina. Even Tonio, on the strength of the great rejoicing, crept back to work the next day; for he thought he might at least make enough for shoes for the bambina--and he did. "If the Signorina can spare me," said Assunta, tremulous with pride, "Giulia is coming at half-past twentyone o'clock to go to the city." The Signorina looked up quickly. Could it be? The smile trembling on Assunta's lips ran over and overflowed her furrowed face-one might say her soul smiled. Assunta moved softly and ecstatically about, doing her work; but that her mind was full of its own bliss the Signorina, tripping steadily away and affecting to hear nothing, could tell. "Beautiful little things! beautiful little things!" she could hear her sigh ecstatically, as she lifted the Signorina's thrice-patched number fours and surveyed them with lingering admiration-perhaps picturing a pair as fair on Giulia's feet. And she spent a most unusual care upon the toilettable and all its knick-knacks, as if they had a suddenly acquired relation through the splendors about to be Giulia's. She kept that bright-eyed and exultant little maiden waiting long after the hour, while she scrupulously fulfilled every service; for nothing was permitted to take precedence of the Signorina's comfort. At length, however, they departed, Assunta quite stiff with importance, Giulia openly dancing at her side. They walked, of ourse; for who would dream of spending twice eighty centimes on a tram?-and what were six miles-with the boots at their end! Giulia looked about her secretly at the Piazza-she would have liked Tesita to see her going to the city to shop, just like a signorina; but Tesita was not there. The Signorina could scarcely wait for the next morning, but when it came she had her question out almost before she heard the door open. "The boots are they beautiful, Assunta? And the ribbon?" "If they are beautiful, Signorina!five lire they cost me in Florence! And the stockings, Signorina!-beautiful black ones for half a lira! As for the ribbon-two metres and a half -so wide, a franc and a half. Giulia is pazza, pazza with joy !—and the sarta finishes the dress at this hour-the Signorina will see if it is beautiful! "And Gemma-and 'Tonio?" asked the Signorina, smiling. Alas! why had she asked! Assunta found her voice in a moment. "Chi lo sa, Signorina?" she said, sadly; "the Gemma stays in bed this morning." "She will not forget, Assunta; she through, but still they were truly magwill be there." nificent. It had come at last, the great day; and, for a miracle of miracles, rain came not with it. Up on the hill-top they were stirring with the daylight, for how was it possible to sleep with those boots in plain sight and the knowledge of that gown in the drawer? Giulia flew from room to room, but not more excitedly than her mother and Delia. The whole family convened to assist at the ceremony of dressing, and as article after article went on, Assunta, standing by, calculated the cost. That added immensely to the impressiveness. First the beautiful black stockings: "Half a franc," murmured Assunta, breathlessly, as they were drawn on, slowly, without a jerk or a pull, lest they should tear. Then the bootsmiles too large and quite shapeless, for who would be so incredibly reckless as to buy boots for five francs only large enough for a foot as it is, and take no thought for next year or the year after? They had patent leather tips, however, and Giulia could hardly stand up in them for pride. Then came the skirt, with many tucks and all the fulness in front, as Fiesolan dresses are wont to have it; and the waist, also tucked in every possible direction, lengthwise and breadthwise, to allow for the years of letting out and down; naturally, one could not hope to have a second gown like this. "Three francs for the sarta and half a franc for the buttons," commented Assunta, as Delia fastened them; for Giulia's fingers were useless, they shook SO. Then the veil a splendid square of curtain muslin, falling quite to the bottom of the short skirt and gathered full about the rosy face under the ribbon garland. "Two metres and a half-a franc and a half it cost," murmured Assunta. There was yet something lacking, the white cotton gloves Gemma had worn three years before. Immensely large they made Giulia's slender brown hands look, and the fingers were worn They all stood off and gazed. "Ten lire and a half I spent for it!" said Assunta, with a sigh of unutterable content. "How much it is beauti ful-Quanto è bella !” Quanto è bella!" The Signorina said the same words an hour later, as she entered the dim and still Duomo from the morning sunlight, and the sixteen little boys and twelve little brides of Heaven carried up their flowers to the Madonna. Nearly all Fiesole was there, and not only priests and acolytes in due profusion, but a Bishop and an Archbishop in white and gold before the altar. The little brides knelt on one side and the little boys on the other, and twenty-eight pairs of small hands in gloves rested on the chancel railing; while twenty-eight heads bent devoutly, with now and then a furtive side-glance at one's veil to be sure it was down, or at one's ribbons to be sure they were still there. The Bishop prayed and the Archbishop exhorted; then the Archbishop prayed and the Bishop exhorted; and finally, after all the ceremony had been duly observed, the sixteen little boys went up two by two and knelt to receive the holy wafer. Then came the turn of the twelve little brides, and the prettiest of them all was Assunta's Giulia in the much-tucked dress, with the beautiful boots creaking as she went, and the long veil fluttering about the rosy face, sweetly serious for the moment and forgetful of all her finery, I really think. The huge cotton gloves were devoutly folded over a white prayer - book, lent for the occasion. And as And as they went : "Verbum caro, panem verum, rose the voices all about them. Eight small brides had knelt and risen; now it was Giulia's turn. The Signorina leaned forward; two little figures knelt; the Archbishop popped something into two rosy mouths, opened like a bird's to be fed; then two little figures rose and the next two advanced. The great moment was over; Giulia had taken her first communion, and "O Salutaris Hostia! qui coeli pandis ostia!" sang the voices softly. But all was not over; not until each had received a silver crucifix (to wear until one's second communion, eight days later), a pictured saint's card, a medal with a pink ribbon which the Archbishop himself threw over the bent heads, and the mammas and sisters stealthily adjusted from behind; and, last of all, a loaf of consecrated bread to take home for the collazione after the service. Then the Archbishop blessed the little flock, and everyone pressed forward to see the little boys and the brides, but especially the brides, because they were so much more fine to see; and so, all whispering and admiring, the crowd poured from the Duomo, not forgetting to cross one's self with holy water at the font. Giulia, escorted by a group of admiring friends, walked demurely, casting a glance to see if haply Tesita was witnessing her triumph; but Tesita was not there. The Signorina, how |