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the feast of san sebastiano ij7i
And up and down the walls ran garlands of
holy-oak, and round the windows crept wreaths bound of
the small pink roses from Donna Elisa’s garden.
Right above the entrance was the image of the
saint, framed in lilies, and on the threshold lay sprays
of cypress. And had one entered the house one
would have found it as beautifully adorned inside as
outside. From attic to cellar, it was cleansed and
polished and decked with flowers, and on the shelves
of the shop there was not a saint, however small or
obscure, that did not have an immortelle, or an
English daisy, in its hand.
And along the whole street of poor little
Diamante the houses had been decorated in the same
manner as Donna Elisa’s. There was such a confusion
of flags that one thought of the wash-clothes
hanging from the earth to the sky in the alley above the
little Moor’s house. All houses and all triumphal
arches had flags, and across the street hung ropes,
where streamer beside streamer fluttered.
At every tenth step the people had placed
triumphal-arches. And over every portal stood an image
of the saint, set in wreaths of yellow immortelles.
The balconies were covered with red quilts, and bright
colored table-covers, and up the walls climbed stiff
garlands.
There was such an abundance of flowers and
green that no one could conceive how it had been
possible to procure all this as early as January.
Everything was wreathed and garlanded. The
broomstick wore a wreath of crocuses, and the knocker a
bunch of hyacinths. But in the windows stood
pictures with monograms and inscriptions of bluish-
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