But it did not enter Mary's mind to mention her age.
"Upon some natures such teaching might not have made the same
impression, of course," the cure went on, thoughtfully. "This dear
child, it seems to me, has a very--how shall I express it?--a very
old-fashioned nature. Nothing, I believe, could ever have turned her
into one of those hard modern girls they are running up now like
buildings made of concrete on steel frames. But the convent teaching has
accentuated all in her that was already what I call 'old-fashioned.' And
you, too, my Principino, you are old-fashioned!"
"I?" exclaimed Vanno, surprised.
"Yes. You will suit each other well, you two, I prophesy. You have an
old-fashioned nature: but do not think when I say that, I place you on a
shelf at the back of the world's cupboard. All Romans, all Italian men,
are old-fashioned at heart--and it is the heart that counts, though we
do not always know it; and most of us would not like others to know it
of ourselves. You have been much in the East, Principino, and you have
learned to love the desert; but you would not have loved it as you do
were it not for the spirit of romance which keeps you old-fashioned
under a very thin veneer of what is modern. I saw this in you when you
were a boy and my pupil; and I must say it made me love you the better.
It is perhaps the secret which draws the love of others toward you,
without their knowing why, though it has caused life to jar on you
often, no doubt, and may again.
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