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the bells of san pasquale. 89
ing the struggle, San Michele lost a wing-feather and
that it was found in Caltanisetta ? Did she know it,
or didn’t she know it ? Or what did she mean by
saying that San Michele could not help ? Was it
her belief, then, that no saints could help? And
there he stood in his workshop every day, carving
images of saints ! Would he do that if it were of no
use? Did she think he was a deceiver?
But as Donna Micaela was as stanch a believer as
Gaetano, she considered his speech unjust, and it
roused in her a spirit of opposition.
" Nevertheless, it sometimes happens, that saints
cannot help," she said to him. And when she saw
that Gaetano looked distrustful she could not resist
the strong desire she felt of convicting him, and she
said to him, that one had promised her, in the name
of the Madonna, that if she became a faithful wife to
Don Ferrante her father should enjoy a happy old
age. But now her husband wanted to place her
father in an asylum, which was as poor as an
almshouse, and as strict as a prison. And the Madonna had
not averted it; in eight days it would take place.
Gaetano listened to her with profound gravity. It
was this which induced her to confide the whole
story to him.
" Donna Micaela," he said, " you must go to the
black Madonna in the cathedral."
" You believe, then, that I haven’t asked her ? "
Gaetano blushed, and said almost in anger : " You
don’t mean to say that you have turned to the black
Madonna in vain? "
" I have prayed to her in vain these last three weeks,
implored her, implored her."
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