'You will have to leave it all here.'
'No--no--'
At first she refused, but she thought for a moment, and then said, half
to herself with beaming eyes: 'The doe will come and eat them.'
She had probably noticed the beautiful creature moving about in the
park, and the thought of having collected so much food for it pleased
her and fired her imagination, already full of stories in which deer are
beneficent and powerful fairies who repose on silken cushions and drink
from jewelled cups. She remained silent and absorbed, picturing to
herself the beautiful tawny animal browsing on the fruit under the
flowering trees.'
'Come,' said Donna Maria, 'it is getting late.'
Holding Delfina by the hand, she walked on till they came to the edge of
the wood. Here she stopped to look at the sea, which, catching the
reflection of the clouds, was like a vast undulating, glittering sheet
of silk.
Without a word, Andrea plucked a spray of blossom, so full that the twig
it hung from bent beneath its weight, and offered it to Donna Maria. As
she took it from his hand she looked at him, but she did not open her
lips.
They passed on down the avenue, Delfina talking, talking incessantly;
repeating the same things over and over again, infatuated about the doe,
inventing long monotonous tales in which she ran one fairy story into
another, losing herself in labyrinths of her own creation, as if the
sparkling freshness of the morning air had gone to her head.
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