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228 . the miracles of antichrist
dare to look each other in the face. Before they
have believed, but not now. Now they think that
old Fra Felice has deceived them. No one dares
entertain the least hope.
" Then the first number is drawn, and that is
right. Ah, Donna Elisa, they will be so amazed
that they almost forget to break out into exultation.
Because they have all expected to be disappointed.
When the second figure is drawn there is a dead
silence. Then comes the third. The lottery
gentlemen will be astonished that all are so quiet. ’
Today they win nothing,’ they will say. 4 To-day the
state will reap a good profit.’ The fourth number
is drawn. The little orphan takes up the roll out of
the wheel, and the marker opens the roll and shows
the number. Down among the people it is almost
ghastly, no one is able to say a word, so great is
their happiness. Then the last figure is drawn.
Donna Elisa, such shouting and rejoicing, they fall
sobbing into one another’s arms. They are rich.
All Diamante is rich-"
Donna Elisa had held her arm under Fra Felice’s
head and supported him, while he had gasped out
all this. Now, all of a sudden, his head dropped
back. Old Fra Felice was dead.
• • • • • •
While Donna Elisa had been with old Fra Felice,
many of the people in Diamante had begun to worry
about the blind. Not exactly the men, for the
greater part of them were out in the fields working,
but the women.
They had come in great numbers to Santa Lucia
to comfort the blind, and finally, when about four
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