A GREAT DAY

BY

EDMONDO DE AMICIS

The Translation by Edith Wharton.


The G--s were living in the country, near Florence, when the Italian
army began preparations to advance upon Rome. In the family the
enterprise was regarded with disapproval. The father, the mother, and
the two grown daughters, all ardent Catholics and temperate patriots,
talked of moral measures.

"We don't profess to understand anything about politics," Signora G---
would say to her friends; "I am especially ignorant; in fact, I am
afraid I should find it rather difficult to explain WHY I think as I do.
But I can't help it; I have a presentiment. There is something inside me
that keeps saying: 'This is not the right way for them to go to Rome;
they ought not to go, they must not go!' I remember how things were in
forty-eight, and in fifty-nine and sixty; well, in those days I never
was frightened, I never had the feeling of anxiety that I have now; I
always thought that things would come right in the end. But now, you may
say what you please, I see nothing but darkness ahead. You may laugh as
much as you like... pray heaven we don't have to cry one of these days!
I don't believe that day is so far off."