Page:Undset - Jenny (1921).djvu/39

 outlines. The sun would not rise yet for some time, but the grey mass of houses began slowly to radiate colour. It looked as if the light came from within through transparent walls; some houses seemed red, others turned yellow or white. The villas in Monte Mario rose distinctly from a background of brown grassbanks and black cypresses.

All at once there was a sparkling as of a star somewhere on the hills behind the town—a window-pane had caught the first sunray after all—and the foliage turned a golden olive. A small bell began to peal down in the city.

Miss Jahrman came close to her friend and leaned sleepily against her:

"Il levar del sole."

Helge looked up against the limpid blue sky; a sunray brushed the top of the spray and made the waterdrops scintillate in gold and azure.

"Bless you all, I am desperately sleepy," said Francesca, yawning carelessly. "Ugh! it is freezing! I cannot understand how you can sit on that cold stone, Jenny. I want to go to bed at once—subito!"

"I am sleepy too." Heggen yawned. "We must go home, but I am going to have a cup of hot milk at my dairy first. Are you coming?"

They went down the Spanish stairs. Helge looked at all the little green leaves that peeped out between the stone steps.

"Fancy anything growing where so many people walk up and down."

"Everywhere, where there is some earth between the stones, something grows. You should have seen the roof below our house last spring. There is even a little fig-tree growing between the tiles, and Cesca is very concerned about it lest it should not stand the winter, and wonders where it will get nourishment when it grows bigger. She has made a sketch of it."