The Argosy — page 296: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Marionettes. 275 they liked, except the old uncle, and he was rather proud that his little Chiara should be sought by a young man of whom all the neigh- bours spoke so well. Besides—and this was a great point with the old man—Luigi was clever, and he himself was old and feeble now, and might die any day. ‘Then he had nothing in the world to — leave his little Chiara but his Marionettes ; and what could Chiara do with Marionettes? She could not work them. But Gigi might learn, and do even better in the future than he had done. So, when, as time went on, and Luigi had won Chiara: had been al- lowed to take the little hand he loved and hold it in both his own, and kiss the sweet eyes which had won him that day in the Cathe- dral: it came to be a question of ways and means between himself and Piero. Then that old man made it a condition, that if he married Chiara, he should give up the situation in which he was then, and become owner and manager of the Marionettes. Luigi was far too much in love to hesitate atany condition. Besides _ the life seemed to him to have many charms, and held out the hope of much for the future. So there was a modest wedding in one of the small churches of Bologna, one morning in early spring. And among the few guests present was Luigi’s former master. ‘Though he sorely regretted losing the young man, and had quite made up his mind that he was ruining himself by the step he was taking, yet when the time came, he honoured the ceremony with his presence. And more than this: the evening before, he had added quite a handsome sum to the amount due to Luigi; so that altogether, as he had been a careful lad and had saved something, the young people started with what seemed to them riches. Luigi took his young wife up into the mountains to his own ‘‘paese.” All who had known him as a boy welcomed him back, and made much of Chiara; and she responded to the simple kindness of the women and children, who were won by her pretty ways as much as all the men were by her pretty face. The month they spent among the hills was for ever after the brightest bit of their lives. Then they returned to Bologna, and Luigi settled down to help Piero in the management of the Marionettes. A year afterwards, Mimi was born to ‘them, and he became at once the old man’s delight and pride. But Piero was growing very feeble and broken now, and the winters are cold and long at Bologna; so when Mimi was two years old, the little family agreed to move to Florence. This journey nearly swallowed up all Luigi’s savings, much of which had gone in an illness Chiara had after Mimi’s birth, which left her delicate for nearly a year. Very soon after they were settled at Florence poor old Piero died. This was a grief to them both, and carried off the rest of Luigi’s little hoard. Then a baby girl was born to Chiara, and Fortune lately had not been kind to the young couple. Poverty had come to COM () VOO|kKS.CO