Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First book - VII. The Bells of San Pasquale
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
THE BELLS OF SAN PASQUALE ’ 87
wings were ruffled with anger, and that Lucifer was
pressing his claws into the steel plate on his leg?
Did she see how San Michele was driving in his
spear, and how he was frowning and pressing his
lips together?
He wished to lay the little image in her hand, but
she gently pushed it away. She saw that it was
beautiful and spirited, she said, but she knew that
it could not help her. She thanked him for his
gift, but she would not accept it.
Then Gaetano seized the image and rolled it in
paper and put it back in its place.
And not until it was wrapped up and put away
did he speak to her.
But then he asked her why she came to buy wax
candles if she was not a believer. Did she mean to
say that she did not believe in San Michele? Did
she not know that he was the most powerful of the
angels, and that it was he who had vanquished
Lucifer and thrown him into Etna? Did she not
believe that it was true? Did she not know that
San Michele lost a wing-feather in the fight, and
that it was found in Caltanisetta? Did she know it
or not? Or what did she mean by San Michele not
being able to help her? Did she think that none of
the saints could help? And he, who was
standing in his workshop all day long, carving saints! —
would he do such a thing if there was no good in it ?
Did she believe that he was an impostor?
But as Donna Micaela was just as strong a
believer as Gaetano, she thought that his speech was
unjust, and it irritated her to contradiction.
“It sometimes happens that the saints do not
help,” she said to him. And when Gaetano looked
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
