Chapter 24

She carefully wrapped the dress in tissue paper. Not really seeing it, lost in her memories.

For years life had gone on in the same way and she had come to believe that that was how it would always be.

Then everything seemed to happen at once.

First, her beloved grandmother died. She did it as she had done everything in life, with quiet dignity. She went to bed one night and did not get up in the morning. Don Alfonso came running over to the shop, his face white with shock, his hair uncombed and blowing in the breeze.

"Come! Come quick!" he cried, his voice breaking on the words.

And Rosalba went to her grandmother's room and stood at the end of the bed looking at the beloved figure who had uttered so many words of wisdom and now would never utter anything again. "Go and fetch the priest," she said quietly, and when her father left the room, she sat down at her grandmother's bedside and took her hand for the last time. Then she laid her head on her grandmother's breast and wept.