The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-29

dens and strutting peacocks and tiny
Kissing waterfalls.
"Seltishr' said her friends. Some
thing of this awareness must also
have struck Miss de Lima, because
after a while, prompted by COM
bination of ennui and sense Of duty,
she arranged that the villa be open
to the public again, two days a week.
In way. that served to Increase her
isolation because it meant that addi-
tional hours must be spent indoors,
prowling among her objects Dart.
1t was with something akin to I'M
pleasant surprise that Miss de Lima
began to apprehend herself in what
had come to be her habit of peering
through the heavy brocades and shut
ters of her windows these days that
the gardens were open wide. The
voices and streamers of laughter and
high excited EXPLANATIONS that came
to her, seemed to draw her autOmat-
ically towards the din.
There it was, the same cid van
dial, vulgar, pOking, curious public
that she in a way despised even while
she tolerated it's ways. How they
moved about. down there, through her
gardens, kept in place by guards, adj
monished by parents, splashed In sun
light that seemed positively coarse as
applied to them. How they could met
amorphose her beautiful silence into
din; her paradise into a mere penny
a-stare spectacle! One onslaught
from them, and dignity became so
much raucous curiosity. The racing
children. the gaping matrons, the
heavy-legged papas brought aesecra-
ton, and yet, for the life Of her, 1t
was impossible for Miss de Lima not
to feel drawn to her windows as if to
an open crate that held warmth.
They were a common lot, but there
rose off them, mysterious as mist, the
aroma of humanity. They electrified
the place. Even the crouching
Venuses, the marble fauns, the DON
atello groups, the Della Robbia
friezes around the garden, seemed to
take on a sort of relationship to life.
They emerged from the centuries
as replicas of life; not as mere OBJ
jets dart
1t was that curious warmth, coming
over her these days, gradually i'm
PEELED Miss de Lima, although she
would never have admitted it, even
to herself, to throw open the gardens
Eve VT
the villa itself!
That was the most exciting day of
all! The youngsters, with their round
questioning eyes and grimy little hands
clasped into those of the gaping
matrons and the heavy-legged papas!
Young honeymooners standing spell
bound before the beauty of BOttf-
cell! Men and women out of the
humblest walks Of life, trailing along
the corridors, bathed in the mystic
beauty of they knew not what!
From various apertures which she
had arranged for herself, Miss de
Lima, seeing but unseen, could behold
all this. 1t was as if the great stone
palace, so difficult to heat at best.
were infused with warmth. Vulgar
animal-warmth, but warmth nonethe-
less.
This is the Story of the beginnings
of the gigantic plan which was at this
time just beginning to take shape in
Miss de Limas brain.
Villa Fiesole is now home for one
hundred poverty-stricken children of
the Fiesole countryside. Tutors,
nurses, musical instructors, educators
from over the world, dwell in the
frescoed chambers, and children, with
books, palettes, music rolls, toys, in
fest it's corridors.
In a room high at the top of the
house, which she had never even
troubled to restore, Miss de Lima
dwells among the simpler of her per-
sonal objects.
All day she is down among the cor
ridors and the gardens, moving among
children.