‘On the other hand, they have to vent, too,’ Donna Mariuccia answered. ‘They’re innocent souls. They need time to weep. When I look at them, and think how they’ll become just like us –’ she went to get a broom and swept a cabbage leaf out of the doorway – ‘I wonder what God is doing.’

‘It’s new, brand new! You hardly wore it!’ said Eugenia, sticking her nose in the green dress lying on the sofa in the kitchen, while the marchesa went looking for an old newspaper to wrap it in.

The marchesa thought that the child really couldn’t see, because otherwise she would have realized that the dress was very old and full of patches (it had belonged to her dead sister), but she refrained from commenting. Only after a moment, as she was coming in with the newspaper, she asked:

‘And the eyeglasses your aunt got you? Are they new?’

‘With gold frames. They cost eight thousand lire,’ Eugenia answered all in one breath, becoming emotional again at the thought of the honour she had received, ‘because I’m almost blind,’ she added simply.

‘In my opinion,’ said the marchesa, carefully wrapping the dress in the newspaper, and then reopening the package because a sleeve was sticking out, ‘your aunt could have saved her money. I saw some very good eyeglasses in a shop near the Church of the Ascension, for only two thousand lire.’

Eugenia blushed fiery red. She understood that the marchesa was displeased. ‘Each to his own position in life. We all must know our limitations,’ she had heard her say this many times, talking to Donna Rosa, when she brought her the washed clothes, and stayed to complain of her poverty.

‘Maybe they weren’t good enough. I have nine diopters,’ she replied timidly.

The marchesa arched an eyebrow, but luckily Eugenia didn’t see it.

‘They were good, I’m telling you,’ the marchesa said obstinately, in a slightly harsher voice. Then she was sorry. ‘My dear,’ she said more gently, ‘I’m saying this because I know the troubles you have in your household. With that difference of six thousand lire, you could buy bread for ten days, you could buy … What’s the use to you of seeing better? Given what’s around you!’ A silence. ‘To read, maybe, but do you read?’

‘No, Signora.’

‘But sometimes I’ve seen you with your nose in a book. A liar as well, my dear. That is no good.’

Eugenia didn’t answer again. She felt truly desperate, staring at the dress with her nearly white eyes.

‘Is it silk?’ she asked stupidly.

The marchesa looked at her, reflecting.

‘You don’t deserve it, but I want to give you a little gift,’ she said suddenly, and headed towards a white wooden wardrobe. At that moment the telephone, which was in the hall, began to ring, and instead of opening the wardrobe the marchesa went to answer it. Eugenia, oppressed by those words, hadn’t even heard the old woman’s consoling allusion, and as soon as she was alone she began to look around as far as her poor eyes allowed her. How many fine, beautiful things! Like the store on Via Roma! And there, right in front of her, an open balcony with many small pots of flowers.