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sirocco
139
would break out, Don Ferrante became worse.
And Donna Micaela feared that he would die.
It seemed to her a sign that her destruction was
predetermined, that she should lose Don Ferrante
too. Who would have any regard for her when he
was dead ?
She watched over him. She and all the women
of the neighborhood sat around the bed in silent
prayer.
But one morning, towards six o’clock, Don
Ferrante died. And Donna Micaela mourned for him
because he had been her only protector, and the
only one who could have saved her from ruin, and
she wished to honor death according to the custom
still in vogue in Diamante.
She covered the walls of the death-chamber with
black cloth, closed all the shutters to prevent the
glad sunlight from entering the rooms.
All fire on the hearth was extinguished, and she
sent word to a blind singer to come to the palace
daily, and sing dirges.
She left Giannita to take care of Cavaliere
Palmeri, that she herself might sit in the death-chamber
among the women who had hastened thither.
It was towards evening of the day of death, when
all preparations were ended, and one only waited for
the white brotherhood to come and take away the
body. In the room where the dead body lay it was
deathly still. All the women of the quarter sat there
motionless, with tear-stained faces.
Donna Micaela, in her great anguish, sat staring
involuntarily at the pall spread out over the body.
It was a pall belonging to the family; the family
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