The story of Ida: epitaph on an Etrurian tomb

Front matter

THE GIFT OF

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Preface

"POR now some ten or twelve years I have been asking every good writer whom I knew, to write some part of what was exactly true, in the greatest of the sciences, that of Humanity. It seemed to me time that the Poet and Romance-writer should become now the strict historian of days which, professing the openest proclamation of themselves, kept yet in secrecy all that was most beautiful, all that was most woful, in the multitude of their unshepherded souls. And, during these years of unanswered petitioning, I have become more and more convinced that the wholesomest antagonism to whatever is dangerous in the temper, or iv Preface.

foolish in the extravagance, of modern Fiction, would be found in sometimes substituting for the artfully-combined im^probability, the careful record of providentially ordered Fact.

Providentially, I mean, not in the fitting together of evil so as to produce visible good, — but in the enforcement, though under shadows which mean but the difference between finite and infinite knowledge, of certain laws of moral retribution which enough indicate for our guidance, the Will, and for our comfort, the Presence, of the Judge and Father of men.

It might be thought that the function of such domestic history was enough fulfilled by the frequency and full detail of modern biography. But lives in which the public are interested are scarcely ever worth writing. For the most part compulsorily artificial, often affectedly so, — on the whole, fortunate beyond ordinary rule, — and, so far as the men are really greater than others, unintelligible to the common reader, — the lives of statesmen.

Preface. v

soldiers, authors, artists, or any one habitually set in the sight of many, tell us at last little more than what sort of people they dealt with, and of pens they wrote with ; the personal life is inscrutably broken up, — often contemptibly, and the external aspect of it merely a husk, at the best. The lives we need to have written for us are of the people whom the world has not thought of, — far less heard of, — who are yet doing the most of its work, and of whom we may learn how it can best be done.

The following story of a young Florentine girl's too short life is absolutely and simply true : it was written only for memorial of her among her friends, by the one of them that loved her best, and who knew her perfectly. That it was not written for publication will be felt after reading a few sentences; and I have had a certain feeling of desecrating its humility of affection, ever since I asked leave to publish it.

vi Preface.

In the close of the first lecture given on my return to my duties in Oxford, will be found all that I am ^inded at present to tell concerning the writer, and her friends among the Italian poor; and perhaps I, even thus, have told more than I ought, though not in the least enough to express my true regard and respect for her, or my admiration of her powers of rendering, with the severe industry of an engraver, the most pathetic instants of action and expression in the person she loves. Her drawing of Ida, as she lay asleep in the evening of the last day of the year 1872, has been very beautifully and attentively, yet not without necessary loss, reduced in the frontispiece, by Mr. W. Rofle, from its own size, three-quarters larger ; — and thusj strangely, and again let me say, providentially, I can show, in the same book, examples of the purest truth, both in history and picture. Of invented effects of light and shade on imaginary scenes, it seems to me we have admired too many. Here is a real

Preface. vii

passage of human life, seen in the Hght that Heaven sent for it.

One earnest word only I have to add here, for the reader's sake ; — let it be noted with thankful reverence that this is the story of a Catholic girl written by a Protestant one, yet the two of them so united in the Truth of the Christian Faith, and in the joy of its Love, that they are absolutely unconscious of any difference in the forms or letter of their religion.

J. RUSKIN.

Brantwood, \\th April, 1883.

THE STORY OF IDA.

Part I

A WEEK ago yesterday, I looked for the last time on her who has been, for so long, at once a care and a help to me.

I feel that her life has left a great peacefulness in mine, that will be a long time before it quite fades away, like the light which remains so long after sunset on a summer evening; and while I am yet, as it were, within her influence, I have wished to write down a little of what I remember of her, that so beautiful a life and death may not be quite forgotten.

It is now nearly four years ago, that a school-teacher, who had been long a friend of mine, came to ask that I would interest myself for one of her scholars, who was about to pass a difficult examination, that she might obtain a diploma of Maestra Commjinale. Giulia — that was the young girl's name — was a pleasant, fresh-looking girl, with honest, bright blue eyes, and dark hair that curled lightly about her forehead. Her voice and face interested me at once ; and I soon found out that her history also was an interesting one. She was one of a family of fifteen children, then all dead but three ; her father was advanced in life, her mother was an invalid, and they were all very poor. There was a sad story also in. the family. One of Giulia's elder brothers had been married, and lived happily for some years with his wife. She died, leaving him with four little children; and such was the violence of his grief, that his mind gave way, — not all at once, but little by little. Gradually he began to neglect his work, his language and behaviour were agitated and unlike his usual self, he wandered much about without an object, — and one day the report of a pistol was heard in his room, and that was the last ! The grandparents had taken home all the poor little orphans, and it was to assist in suppiorting them that Giulia wished to be a teacher.

She had been studying very hard — so hard that she had finished in six months the studies which should have occupied a year ! She was an energetic little body, made bold by the necessities of the children ; and she went about to the various ofifices, and had all the needful papers made out, and obtained introductions to all those persons whom she thought likely to help her in her object. Of course I was too happy to do what I could — very little as it happened — and Giulia's youth, and hopefulness, and bright spirit, were like sunshine in my room. She was much there in those days, talking over her prospects, and what was to be done. One day she came with a very beautiful companion, a little girl of sixteen : " I have brought my sister ; she wanted to see you," she said, by way of apology ; and that was how I came to know Ida.

She was very lovely then; I do not think that any of the pictures which I afterwards took of her, were quite so pretty as she was. Let me see if I can describe her. She was a little taller than Giulia, and perhaps rather too slight for perfect beauty, but singularly graceful both in form and movement. Such a shape as the early painters used to imagine for their young saints, with more spirit than substance about it ; her hair was dark, almost black, quite straight, as fine as silk, soft, heavy, and abundant ; and she wore it turned back from her face, as was the fashion just then, displaying to the best advantage a clear, broad, intellectual forehead. She had a regular oval face, rather small than large ;

with soft black eyes of wonderful beauty and gentleness, shaded by perhaps the longest lashes which I ever saw — with a pretty little straight nose (which gave a peculiar prettiness to her profile), and a mouth not very small, but beautiful in form and most delicate in expression. Her teeth were very white, brilliant, and regular ; her complexion was dark, without much colour, except in her lips, which were of a deep red. When she was a little out of breath, however, or when she was animated in talking, a bright glow used to come up in her cheeks, always disappearing almost before one knew that it was there. She and I made great friends during that first visit : she liked me, as a matter of course, because Giulia liked me; and on my part, it would have been impossible that I should not love anything so beautiful and innocent and affectionate. I did not let her go until we had arranged that I should take her likeness ; and from that time forward, as long as Ida lived, I vvas almost half the time employed either in drawing or painting her. It was seldom that I could keep any picture of her for more than a little while : every one used to ask me where I had found such a beautiful face.

It is pleasant to me now to look back at those days, before any shadow came over that peaceful and most innocent life. Those long happy mornings in my painting room, when she used to become so excited over my fairy stories and ballads, and tried to learn them all by heart to tell to Giulia ; and when she, in turn, confided to me all the events and interests of her short life. One thing I soon discovered, — that she was quite as beautiful in mind as in person. If I tell all the truth of what Ida was, I am sure that it will seem to any one who did not know her as if I were inventing. She seemed, even in those early days, like one who lived nearer heaven than other people.

I have never quite understood it myself;

she had been brought up more in the world than is usual with Italian girls, for (as I have said) her parents were poor, and her mother sickly, and she had been obliged, even from early childhood, to work hard for her daily bread. It seems almost impossible that no bad influence should ever have come near her; but if it ever did, it passed by without harming her, for there was nothing in her on which it could take hold. Her mind seemed to turn naturally to everything that was good and beautiful, while what was evil made no impression on her, but passed by her as if it had not been.

She lived in a dismal old house, up a great many stairs, in one of the poorest streets of the city. All this does not sound very pleasant; but what did Ida see there? Any one else would have seen, looking from the windows there, dirty old houses out of repair, crammed full of poverty, broken windows, leaky roofs, rickety stairs, rags hung out to dry from garret windows, pale, untidy, discouraged women, neglected children. Ida saw the bright sky, and the swallows that built uiider the eaves, and the moss and. flowers that grew between the tiles on the old roofs. And from one window she could see a little far-away glimpse of the country, and from another she could look down into a garden. She saw the poor neighbours besides, but to her they were all people to be loved, and pitied, and sympathised with. Whatever there was good, in any of them, she found it out, and ignored everything else. It was a peculiarity of my Ida, that all the people with whom she was intimately acquainted were, in some way or other, "very remarkable." She never admitted that they had any faults. One old woman whose temper was so fearful that nobody could live with her, was " a good old woman, but a little nervous. She had been an invalid for many years, and was a great sufferer, and naturally she had her days when things worried her." An idle.

The Story of Ida. g

dirty old fellow, who lodged in the ' same house, — who lived principally by getting into debt at one eating-house until the owner would trust him no longer, and then going to another, — she described as " an unfortunate gentleman in reduced circumstances who had been educated in high life, and consequently had never learnt to do anything. Besides, he was a poet, and poets are always peculiar." A profane man, who talked "atheism, she charitably said was probably insane. Poor little Ida ! The time came when her eyes were opened by force; when she saw sin in its ugliness in the person of one who was very dear to her, — and then she died.

But that was some time afterwards. I am writing now of that first happy winter, when I was coming, Httle by little, to know what my companion was. A /I that she was, I never knew till after she was gone. Ida was a little seamstress, and she was then only beginning to earn money. Thirty cenlo The Story of Ida.

times a day* was what she gained when she worked for a shop, and for this she used to sit at the sewing machine until past midnight. Sometimes she used to sew for ladies at their houses, and then she earned a franc a day or more.

Her parents allowed her to keep all her own earnings, that she might clothe herself; but there was always something that she wanted for father, or mother, or Giulia, or the little orphans, more than anything that she wanted for herself; so that her own dress was always kept down to objects of the strictest necessity. I am sure it was not that she did not care "for pretty things as much as any other girl : if any of the ladies where she worked gave her a piece of ribbon, or a scrap of coloured silk, or anything else that was bright and pretty, it was an unending amusement to make it up in some fanciful and becoming style, whether

* Three English pence. The larger payment at private houses, a franc, is one hundred centimes, or tenpence.

for Giulia or herself, though she always enjoyed the most working for Giulia. But generally she was engaged in saving money, a few centimes at a time, to buy a present for somebody, which was a great secret, confided to me under promise of silence. One centime a day she always laid by for " the poor." " It is very little," she said, " but I save it up until Sunday, and it is enough to buy a piece of bread for an old blind man, who always comes to us for his breakfast on Sunday morning."

When the time came for Giulia to pass her examination, Ida came to my room every day, and sometimes twice a day, to tell me what progress she was making. Often she came when I was not at home, and then she would write a note with my pencil on a scrap of paper, and pin it up to the window-frame, where I should be sure to see it. I have kept some of these little notes up to this time, written in a childish round hand, telling how many ' marks '

Giulia had received for geography, and how many for grammar, all signed in the same way — " La sua Ida che l^ vuol tanto bene ! " As long as she lived, her letters were always signed in the same way. Often I would find two or three flowers, carefully arranged by her hand, in a glass of water on my table ; or, if I had left my door locked, they would be made into a fanciful bunch, and tied with a bit of blue ribbon on the door-handle. Giulia passed her examination triumphantly, as she deserved to do ; and soon after obtained a place as teacher in one of the free schools. I remember that there was a great excitement at that time with regard to a new dress, which GiuHa was to wear when she took charge of her class. Ida had been saving money for a great while to buy that dress — it was a grey alpaca — and it was all made, and trimmed, and ready to put on, before Giulia knew anything about it. First I saw the dress unmade, and then made:

and then Giulia hurried over to show it to me, supposing that I should be as much surprised as she was.

Meanwhile the winter had passed into spring, and spring was wearing fast into summer, and my pretty Ida was beginning to look rather poorly. She grew very thin, and had but little appetite ; I thought also that she looked rather sad — but if I asked her what was the matter, she always said that she was tired, and felt the warm weather. I forgot to say that her mother let rooms to lodgers; by the way, the vagabond poet of whom I have spoken was a lodger of hers. A man who had lodged with them for some time had just then left •them ; and a military ofiflcer had taken his room. I remember still the day when Ida first spoke ■ to me of this man, and seemed pleased that her mother had found a new lodger instead of the old one. Oh, if I could only have warned her against him then!

But, as I have said, Ida seemed to be fading, and I felt pretty anxious about her. We were going up to the mountains about that time, and when we parted she said, " Perhaps you will not find me when you come back; I feel as if I should not live very long." But she could give me no reason for this presentiment, and I attached no great importance to it, thinking only that she was weak and nervous. After we had been for a few weeks at S. Marcello, I received a letter from her, almost unintelligible, written evidently in great distress of mind, in which she entreated me, if possible, to come to Florence that she might speak to ' me, as she was in much trouble. She added that she wished she had confided inme sooner ; and begged me in no case to let any one know that I had received a letter from her, but to direct my answer to the post-ofifice, and not to the house. I was greatly alarmed, and wrote to her without losing a minute, telling her that it was impossible that I could go to Florence (as the journey was much longer than I had supposed), and begging her to write again immediately, and tell me what was really the , matter. After two or three days of almost unbearable suspense her answer came, — long enough, and plain enough, this time. I wish now that I had kept her letter, that I might tell this part of her sad story in her own words. In my own, it is hard for me to tell it without speaking more harshly than I would, of one who has at least this claim on my forbearance — that Ida loved him !

The military officer of whom I have spoken, who had then been for three or four months in the house, had fallen in love with Ida, in his fashion : that is, she was not his first love, probably not his last, but she pleased him. He was a man of not far from forty years old, good-looking in a certain way, broad-shouldered, tall, freshcoloured ; and very much of a gentleman in his manners. He was a man of talent besides, and he had travelled much in his military life, and could %ell interesting stories of strange places and people. He had also read a great deal, and could talk of various authors, and quote poetry on all occasions. As a soldier and an Italian, he had, I believe, done himself honour.

I wish I could think that there was some foundation of truth in the passionate attachment whicji he professed for Ida. I suppose he was fond of her, somewhat, for I do not see what reason he could have had for pretending it. He said himself, afterwards, by way of excuse, that he was " blinded by passion " : so let it be. Ida was then just seventeen, growing prettier every day, a delicate, spiritual little creature, looking as if the wind might blow her away; and this military hero, with the broad shoulders and the fair hair, threw himself at her feet, so to say ; courted her passionately, desperately ; and Ida gave him her heart unreservedly, and trusted him as she trusted her father and mother. I sometimes fancy that this man made love to Ida at first partly to amuse himself, to see if he could not put something of this world into the heart of this gentle little saint, who lived always, as it were, half in heaven. But if so, he was disappointed. This love once admitted into her heart became, like all her other feelings, something sacred and noble ; so that, even at this day, it seems to me in a certain way to ennoble the object of it, unworthy as he was; and I cannot say a word that might bring discredit on his name.

He wished to marry her immediately ; and her father and mother, simple, pious, kindhearted people, who would have given their lives for the happiness of their children, consented willingly. They knew that he was poor and an orphan, but they were not ambitious for their pretty daughter ; and they promised to take him home, and keep him as a son of their own. But now came the difficulty. L * was an officer in the

army, and by the present law in Italy an

officer, until he reaches^some particular rank

— I think that of colonel, — is not permitted

to marry, unless the woman of his choice

has a certain amount of dowry. L had

about two years and a half left to serve in

the army, before he would be entitled to a

pension. Now, Ida was so very young that

there seemed nothing very dreadful in the

idea of waiting, but her lover was a great

deal too ardent for that. His proposal was

— and he would hea? of nothing else — that

they should be married immediately by a

religious marriage, leaving the civil marriage

— the only one now legal — until another

time, when his career in the army should be

finished. The poor child knew nothing of

civil and religious marriages, but she was a

little frightened at the idea that her marriage f

* L. is not the initial of the lover's real name, nor of that by which Ida called him, which is used by Francesca in her manuscript.

would be a secret from the whole world ; and altogether she was far from happy, — he told her so many things that she was never to tell any one, and such fearful ruin was to overtake them both if ever their union was discovered. Meanwhile he was very tender and grateful and reverential, not only to her but to all the family. Now at last — so he used to say — "he knew what it was to have a home and a mother ! What a mercy that he, who had suffered so much in his wandering life, who had been so lonely and friendless, should have anchored at last in that peaceful Christian home ! " That was the way he used to talk.

Meanwhile Giulia, the sensible, clear-sighted Giulia, whose heart was all bound up in her little sister, felt an unspeakable antipathy to

L . On the same day when Ida's second

letter arrived at S. Marcello, explaining to me her circumstances, one came also from Giulia, giving her version of the story, no way differing from Ida's in the facts, but even more sad and frightened. "I cannot tell you, dear Signora Francesca," she wrote, " in what 'a state of oentinual agitation I pass my time at present, and how unhappy I am about our Ida. God grant that all may go well ! Mother has gone to the priest to-day to see what they can do." I knew afterwards that Giulia, finding all persuasions fail with her sister (and indeed she had

nothing then to bring .up against L ,

except her instinctive dread and dislike of him), entreated her mother, even with tears to prevent the marriage by any means whatever. But the good Signora Martina (who. was just as pretty, and gentle, and softhearted as Ida herself) could not bear the pale, wasting face of her younger daughter, and her little hands that were growing so thin, and her sad voice ; and she thought that it all came of her love for the captain, and that, if she consented to the secret marriage, Ida would grow bright and happy again.

I, at that time, knew almost nothing about such things, and could not therefore advise very strongly on one side or the other. But it pleased the Lord that the worst should

not happen to our Ida. L was called

away from Florence at a few hours' notice, to join his regiment, on the very day before the one fixed for the marriage. The government was just then making its preparations for the taking of Rome. What she suffered from this separation is not to be told, yet I feel that it was a providence to save her from far greater evil. When we came back to Florence in September I found Ida quite changed in appearance, but patient and resigned, as she always was — willing, as she said, to leave all in the Lord's hand. " Her

L was so good ! " she used to tell me :

" he had been so kind to his own family ! " in particular to his brother's widow, who had been left in destitution with two little children, and to whom he was continually sending money, though he had so little to send. He did not, however, wish to have anything said about this woman, as he feared that Ida's parents mi^t not so willingly consent to the marriage, if they knew that

he was so burdened. L always had a

great many things that he did not wish anything said about. Giulia, however, had her suspicions, and I had mine, about this brother's widow. We both spoke about them — Giulia, I rather think, pretty freely — to Ida. She had resolution enough, when right and wrong were concerned ; and without saying anything to Giulia she went to the post-office, and inquired of the people employed there, if her lover were really in the habit of sending money to Naples, where his sister-in-law lived, and to whom. A record is always kept at the post-office of all the money that comes and goes, so that it was easy to ascertain the truth. And she found that he frequently sent money to a woman in Naples, bearing the same family name as himself. So she and I and Giulia were all quite satisfied. There was a depth of wickedness that we could not imagine, and that even now I find it hard fully to believe, with all the proofs before me!

And now the Italian troops were preparing to march upon Rome, and we were all fearing a great battle; which really never came. We were all preparing lint and ban dages, thinking that they might be wanted, as on former occasions ; and my mother gave out work of this sort to all whom she could find to do it. Ida, I remember, refused to be paid for any work of this sort which 'she did for the army, saying, " Perhaps it may go for L ," — and while she

sat, very pale and quiet, over her lintmaking in my room, I drew that picture of her which I called " La Fidanzata del Capitano," which I think more like her than any of my other pictures, though not half so pretty as she was, for all that.

And now I am coming to the darkest part of my Ida's history — a time when she suiTered much, and which I do not like very well to think about. T said before that I did not know much then about civil marriage. The law had not been in operation more than a little while. But at the same time, I did not feel quite easy about this marriage which was to be kept a secret. It seemed to me that my poor Ida was passing into a perfect network of secrets and mystery. I knew that the captain intended to marry her when he should come back from Rome — and that would ^probably be very soon. So I consulted a friend, who knew more about such things than I did, and she told me just what this religious marriage was — that is, as far as its consequences for this world were concerned, no marriage at all. Then I thought that I ought to tell Ida what she was doing, — which was not very easy, for I knew how