Page:Once a Week Volume V.djvu/200

 . 10, 1861.] it said), completes her dress, and her little black velvet mask is in her hand. Her face glows with delight. There is not the slightest levity about her, she is simply as happy as any girl can be. From the last Carnival to this she has thought of her dress, and every little scrap of ribbon or bit of lace that she could get together have been laid aside for this occasion. With the dimples on her smiling face, and her bright eyes, she is as pretty a sight as one can see, and I am quite sure she will not want partners. She is going with her sisters, her brother-in-law, her aunt, her cousins, a party of eight or ten, and—crowning felicity of all—a fiacre is to be sent for her and to bring her home. To-morrow she will present herself at the usual time, and go through her duties as quietly as before. Her dress is put by till next Carnival comes, and it is all over.

Her Sundays and saints’ days’ “passeggiate” are all the pleasures she will now need. To these may be added the fairs. On every Sunday during Lent there is a fair at one of the gates of Florence, at which are sold a little fiat thin cake, something like the Swiss “gauffre,” called brigidini, and nuts. The brigidini are of very ancient date: the flat kind of tongs in which they are baked have been found in old curiosity shops, dated 1100. They are flavoured with lemon, and crisp, like wafers. These fairs are called by the quaintest names. There is La fiera degli innamorati, La fiera dei disperati, La fiera delle spie, &c., &c., according to the gate at which they are held. There is also the fair of the Santissima Annunziata, held in March, where everything is sold, from a bedstead to a doll. These fairs temper the monotony of the rest of the calendar year.

Novel-reading, tea-drinking and shopping are pleasures not understood by Tuscan maids. Their reading is of the most limited kind, tea-drinking is an abomination to them, and their shopping is very desultory and undignified. They frequent fairs, and actually patronise sellers of second-hand goods. They do not like to go shopping even for their mistresses. Walking out alone they always avoid; and it appears to them an uncalled for and cruel necessity to wear out their shoes, bonnets, and clothes on “giorni di lavoro.”

On the other hand, they do not scorn and abhor any economical habit which their mistresses may think it worth while to practise. There is none of that vain glory in wastefulness which is so common in English servants. There is a greater value for money in some respects, and yet a less regard for it, than in England. So much can be enjoyed without money in Italy, so little in England, that the stand-point is different in the two countries.

An Italian lady’s-maid likes to marry a man servant in the family she serves. “Husband and wife in one service” is one of their dreams of well-being; and as it is the custom for women of all classes never to nurse their own children, the married state does not interfere with their duties. When the time comes for the child to leave its nurse, some odd corner in the house is generally found for it, where it remains “suffered” rather than “permitted” till the time comes for it to be, if a boy, apprenticed to some trade or sent to some school; if a girl, to be taught knitting, working, ironing, &c. In this primitive and patriarchal fashion, which, however, I am sorry to say, is almost passing away, the household of an Italian family is more linked together by personal affection than in our more limited and regular establishments.

That expressive phrase “keeping company” is understood in Italy quite as well as in England. Every girl has her “damo” whom she hopes at some indefinite time in the future to marry. But I am afraid it is the institution rather than the individual that is valued. There is often a change in the principal actor, though the drama goes on. “En tout bien et tout honneur,” be it understood. Single girls in Italy are taken care of and bear a good reputation. Now and then a catastrophe takes place, but owing to what the rigid world would call a laxity of morals, the consequences do not involve the entire ruin of the guilty one. All is not hopelessly forfeited. She need not sink lower in utter desperation. It still depends on herself to maintain her footing, and in time and with opportunity to regain respectability. I think, therefore, in the mode of dealing with this offence, the advantage is on the side of the Italians.

A favourite amusement of the Italian lady’s maid is that old-fashioned Jezebel one, looking out of window. When by some mishap, or miscalculation, the new bonnet or dress has not been ready in time for going out, you will see them leaning out of the window, with a “scaldino” in