Tessera

“ The artist was not alone, for Tessa was with him. She was looking much pleased.
"It is raining hard," said Mr. Gray, "and I have just seen Tessa's father and asked him to let her spend the night with us. It is too great a storm for her to go out in. The little girl has done finely for me to-day, and she sat so well that I got along on my picture quite rapidly. So she will dine with us to-night and I will tell you stories in Italian. After that, we will have games."
Lucy ran and put her arms around Tessa's neck. ”

“ Tessibel raised her eyes to the rafters, and her face flooded with color. The rifle was gone—Daddy Skinner had taken it with him. She was too young to argue with such a man and only wiped her face with her sleeve and sobbed.
"God will see that justice is done, my girl. Your father will hang, do you hear?" shouted Graves. "Hang by the neck till he's dead, and this shanty will be burned with all its filth!"
Frederick clutched his father's arm, his face changing from red to white as he watched Tessibel. She had clambered to her feet, ridiculously tangled in the rags of her dress. ”

“ Tessibel lifted her white face.
"Ye be goin' to tell him that the brat air yers?" queried she brokenly.
"I'll go and make it all right with him. He shall come to you to-day.... Oh, what a wicked girl I was! Kiss me, Tess."
Elias Graves' beautiful daughter sank on the breast of the squatter, and there was a kiss of forgiveness.
The baby whimpered. Teola drew away from Tessibel with a long sigh. She reached for the milk-can.
"There ain't none there," Tess said, with a touch of joy in her tones. "It air all gone. He et all that you brought him." ”

“ The Italians dread old age, and many of the peasants fear death. Beppo saw the shadow pass across his father's face, and, like a good son, tried to make it look as cheerful as usual.
"You shall not grow old and bent like that, [25] babbo. Tessa and I will soon be able to let you take your ease. What do you say, sister?"
Tessa laughed, and answered, "Oh, yes, babbo, your work is nearly done now, for we are fast growing up."
Tessa was only nine years old, but coming to the city to be a model made her feel as though she were a young woman already. ”

“ Gray to Tessa's father.
The two men were standing in the doorway of the artist's home on the Monday after the carnival. Tessa had not forgotten to tell her father that Mr. Gray wished to see him.
"We shall be gone only a few days. We are going to take a short trip to Naples," the artist went on. "But Lucy wishes Tessa's company very much, and I think your little girl would enjoy it. What do you say?"
The peasant was greatly pleased. His face beamed, as he replied:
"You are a good friend to us, Mr. Gray. [116] We can never forget it. What shall we do when you go back to America?" ”

“ You will have him very soon here with you, Tessibel."
The girl was fatigued with turbulent emotions, lonely and heartsick. The shadow of the rope was gone from Daddy Skinner. Like a relieved child she sank down upon the floor and began to whimper. Both men were silenced by the swaying red head. The bacon sputtered in the frying pan upon the stove, spitting the grease to the lids, where it burned away in tiny yellow flames.
Then Tess raised her head.
"What a bloke I air to cry when Daddy air a-comin' home.... We air a-goin' to eat now," she ended, wiping her eyes. ”

“ She stooped and raised the grape-basket in her hand, tendering it to Teola. The white lips became paler—the young mother understood.
"It air a nice day, and the sun will do ye a heap of good," explained Tess. "If I didn't have company, I wouldn't ask ye."
Ben Letts stared sharply. Ezra Longman stupidly shuffled his feet upon the floor. Teola accepted the basket, and answered Tess with meaning:
"I'll take it for you, if you will wait until I return with the money. The fish are to be paid for, aren't they?"
"Yep; come back when ye can. I allers need the money." ”

“ Tessa jumped up, caught the baby out of his cradle, and began to dance about the room. Beppo seized his violin and started a lively air. Their mother began to laugh, while little Francesca looked from one to another in surprise. She could not understand what the sudden excitement was about.
When Tessa had danced herself nearly out of breath, she ran and put her arms around her father's neck.
"Oh, babbo, babbo! do you really mean it?" she cried. "I have never been to the carnival, and I have heard so much about the beautiful festival." ”

“ Lucy had only been in Italy six months and there were many interesting things she had not seen yet.
"Certainly," answered her mother. "Your father and I have been thinking of asking both Tessa and Beppo to spend Christmas week with us. You will enjoy the sights all [53] the more if you have them with you. What do you think?"
Lucy was so pleased she jumped up and down in delight.
"You good, kind mother," she cried. "Of course, it will be lovely."
That very night Tessa's father was asked if he would be willing his children should visit the artist's family. The good man's face beamed with pride. ”

“ Lucy went [61] on, turning toward Tessa, "that those brave men saved the city. They kept the enemy from entering until the bridge was cut down. The last one stood on guard until he felt the supports give way. Then he cried out to the river:
"'O Tiber, Father Tiber, to whom the Romans pray,
A Roman's life, a Roman's arms take thou in charge this day.'
"An instant afterward he jumped into the rushing stream and swam with all his might back to his people and the city he had saved." ”

“ It was no wonder the American artist wished to put him in a picture.
But Tessa was beautiful, too. The artist would not be disappointed when he saw her. Her skin was clear, but like the colour of the olives which grew on the old tree behind her house. And now there was a faint pink blush in her cheeks as she listened to Beppo's story.
They were very happy children, but oh, so [13] poor, you would think if you should visit them in the old house where they have always lived. It is no wonder they like best to be outdoors. ”

“ Tess swung her body round upon the shanty floor, turning cloudy, rebuking eyes upon Teola. She, Tessibel Skinner, crouching squatter-like over Dan Jordan's baby, had sworn never to tell Frederick his sister's secret, and no thought of doing so entered her mind. The minister's daughter must speak the truth. The mother of the babe would answer the question put by the student. ”

“ Tessa, with the stolidity of the Cuban peasant, seems to entirely recover both from her wounded leg and her wounded heart, for she marries a sturdy workman who supplies the earthly wants of Tessa and her numerous progeny. If she ever remembers the romantic days through which she has passed, her appearance belies the fact, for she becomes, apparently, contented with her lot in life. ”

“ A moment afterward merry voices were heard and the Gray children came skipping into the room.
"They are certainly angels," Tessa said to [31] herself when she saw the golden curls of Lucy and the fair, sweet faces of her brother and herself. But she could not tell what they said, for they spoke in a strange tongue.
"It is not soft like our own dear Italian," she whispered to Beppo. "It is hard, this American language." ”

“ For more than an hour Tessibel sat with Teola Graves' baby clasped tightly in her arms, moving back and forth silently in the wooden rocker. A broken board squeaked now and then under the girl's weight, but she slipped the chair into other positions, and rocked on.
She marveled at the child born but that afternoon. The eyes were large and grey. Locks of damp hair fell over a wrinkled, broad brow, giving the infant the expression of an old, old man. In the light Tess could mark every feature. She had never seen a babe so small, and so sickly-looking. ”

“ But, giving every weight to the natural weakness, sweetness and affectionateness, as well as to the latent falsity of Tito's character, we cannot accept the Tessa episode as true to life in general, while it is eminently untrue to Italian life, especially of those times. Tessa herself, too, is wearisome with her tears and her kisses, her blue eyes and baby face, so incessantly repeated and [Pg 96] harped on. She is as nauseating as she is impossible; and the whole story from first to last is an ugly blot on the book.
In Romola and in Savonarola we touch the heights. ”

“ Tess grunted significantly.
"Aw! a mustard seed ain't no bigger than a speck of dirt."
"I know it, Tess; I know it. But one only has to have a little faith in God to enable Him to answer every prayer we utter."
She grasped the thin baby to her breast frantically, kissed the crimson mark up and down, until where the frenzied lips had traveled the flesh turned purple. Oh! to have faith to believe that she might soon have her child with her always—always! Of late there had crept over Teola the shadow of the great beyond, into which her student lover had been so hastily summoned. ”

“ I was actually engaged in packing my things together when Teresina came into my room. Observing what I was about, she exclaimed, astonished, 'Are you going to leave us?' I gave her to understand that after the affront which had been put upon me by Lauretta I could not think of remaining any longer in her society. 'And so,' replied Teresina, 'you're going to let yourself be driven away by the extravagant conduct of a little fool, who is now heartily sorry for what she has done and said. Where else can you better live in your art than with us? ”

“ Tessa told Lucy. "I never had any either, till your mother gave me these."
When the peasant called at the palace to take the children home, he brought great news.
"We have a new baby," he said. "It is a beautiful boy just a day old. And now we must have a christening as soon as Twelfth Night is over. We will ask the kind artist and his wife, as well as our own friends, to come." ”

“ And now your work is over for the day.
"Pretty hard not to move about freely, little one, isn't it?" he said, as he patted Tessa on the chin. Then he rang the bell and told the servant to call his own children up to the studio. He would not have done this if he had not seen that his young models were unlike many of the poor children of the city.
"They are gentle and polite, if they are peasants," he said to himself. "My wife will be pleased, for Lucy and Arthur are lonesome and need some playmates of their own age." ”

“ Everybody laughed.
"He is hungry; that is all, you foolish Francesca. You are only a baby yourself," said Beppo.
After the baby had been put back in the cradle, Tessa went to the bedside of her mother and told her of her lovely visit to the grand home of the Americans.
"To-morrow, when you are not so tired, I will tell you more about it. But after all home is the best place in the world. Now that I can look at you, I don't care if I can't see the procession to-morrow. Just think! babbo says that an image of the Holy Child is carried up and down the aisles of one of the churches. ”

“ She felt the man crush her in his arms, felt the thick lips upon her face.
"Ye think ye be such a smart kid that ye needn't never mind what a man says to ye. I knows that brat don't belong to yerself. I ain't seed ye all summer for nothin'. Tell me, whose air he?"
Tess wrenched herself free, and sent forth scream after scream. A horny hand left a red mark across the fair face. It was the right of the fisherman to beat the woman he loved.... Tessibel Skinner was feeling for the first time the aggressiveness of the male. ”

“ It had been so sudden that Tess screamed, and the witch muttered a curse. The rain tore its way through the small dirty room; the bats loosened their hold upon the wooden rafters and circled the darkness, first into the open, then into the room—against and away from Tessibel's face, until the girl broke into wild weeping.
Ma Moll had failed to find the cross. The wind forcing the door bespoke evil for Daddy. Without the student's Christ how could she save him?
"Go home, brat," ordered the hag. "Go home, there air a cross with a Christ hangin' to it, and there were a dead man without humps." ”

“ No one can buy your islands if you won't sell them, you know. That's a peach of a frock!" He changed the subject abruptly and gazed admiringly [Pg 125] at Tessie's blue-and-silver dancing frock. "And awfully becoming!" His admiration shifted to her puzzled little face. "You look like a—a—" he stammered as he tried to tell Tessie what she resembled—"a dream!" he finally decided. "Is that the royal jewel?" He bent forward to look at the Tear of God as it hung around Tessie's white neck. ”

“ Tall and broad-shouldered, with thick black hair and a white face, tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles, and a cigarette in a holder, taciturn, impassive and unsmiling, Teixeira never failed to conceal that he was more shy than his visitor. With articulation as beautifully clear as his writing and in words not less exquisitely chosen than the language of his books, he would introduce the newcomer to those with whom he was to work. ”

“ Mr. Gray answered, "Yes, we should like it very much. After my holiday, I must paint quite steadily, and I wish to finish the picture of Tessa and Beppo at once. It would not be easy for you to bring the children to me [82] every day now that your wife is sick. So please let them go back with us."
This was how Tessa and Beppo came to go back to Rome with the family of the artist. The carriage was a little crowded, but no one cared. All were so busy laughing and talking that it seemed only a few minutes before they drew near the city gates. ”