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.
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THE HOME-COMING 343
He feels a terrible difficulty in holding himself
upright. He clutches in the air with his hands,
tries to get support from the door-post, but nothing
helps. His legs give way under him; he slides
down the steps and strikes his head on the stones.
He lies there like one dead.
Every one rushes to him, carries him in, runs
after surgeon and doctor, prescribes, talks, and
proposes a thousand ways to help him.
Donna Elisa and Pacifica get him finally into one
of the bedrooms. Luca drives the people out and
places himself on guard before the closed door.
Donna Micaela, who came in with the others, was
taken first of them all by the hand and led out. She
was not allowed to stay in at all. Luca had himself
seen Gaetano fall as if from a blow on the temple
when he caught sight of her.
Then the doctor comes, and he makes one attempt
after another to rouse Gaetano. He is not
successful; Gaetano lies as if turned to stone. The doctor
thinks that he received a dangerous blow on the
head when he fell. He does not know whether he
will succeed in bringing him to life.
The swoon in itself was nothing, but that blow
on the hard edge of the stone steps —
In the house there is an eager bustle. The poor
people outside can only listen and wait.
There they stand the livelong day outside Donna
Elisa’s door. There stand Donna Concetta and
Donna Emilia. No love has been lost between
them in former times, but to-day they stand beside
one another and mourn.
Many anxious eyes peer in through the windows
of Donna Elisa’s house. Little Gandolfo and old
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