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the bells of san pasquale. 119
went into all the little shops along the Corso, struck
the counter with his hand and declared that now
every one in the city would be judged, because they
had been unanimous in ruining him.
And what one heard about the card party at Cafe
Europa was equally frightful. The same four
players had sat there at the card-table year after
year, and it had never occurred to any one that they
could do anything else. But now all of a sudden
they dropped the cards and promised each other that
if they escaped death this day, they would never
touch them again.
Donna Elisa’s shop was packed with people, and to
move the saints and avert the impending danger,
they bought all the sacred things she had to sell.
But Donna Elisa was only thinking of Gaetano, who
was absent, and believed that San Pasquale
predicted that he would be lost during the journey, and
felt no joy whatever over all the money she was
earning.
But when San Pasquale’s bells continued to ring
all the afternoon, it seemed almost beyond endurance.
Because now every one knew that it was the
earthquake they portended, and that all Diamante would
become a heap of ruins.
In the alleys, where the houses themselves seemed
to fear the earthquake and huddled close together for
mutual support, the people moved their miserable
old furniture out on the street in the rain, and
stretched tents of bed-quilts over them. And they
even carried out the little children in their cradles,
sheltering them under large boxes.
In spite of the rain there was such a bustle on the
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