" We were therefore free to
admire without restriction the handsomest person I had ever seen give
change for a five-franc piece. She was a large quiet woman, who would
never see forty again; of an intensely feminine type, yet wonderfully rich
and robust, and full of a certain physical nobleness. Tho she was not
really old, she was antique, and she was very grave, even a little sad.
She had the dignity of a Roman empress, and she handled coppers as if they
had been stamped with the head of Caesar.
I have seen washerwomen in the Trastevere who were perhaps as handsome as
she; but even the head-dress of the Roman contadina contributes less to
the dignity of the person born to wear it than the sweet and stately
Arlesian cap, which sits at once aloft and on the back of the head; which
is accompanied with a wide black bow covering a considerable part of the
crown; and which, finally, accomodates itself indescribably well to the
manner in which the tresses of the front are pushed behind the ears.
This admirable dispenser of lumps of sugar has distracted me a little; for
I am still not sufficiently historical.
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238