Eufemia Magis

Eufemia Magis is Donna Fedele’s elderly cousin from Santhià and an occasional guest in her home. Small, bent, and deeply timid, she is repeatedly treated with a mixture of tenderness and teasing. Her comic awkwardness never makes her indifferent: she worries over Donna Fedele’s health, witnesses Lelia’s departure, and is drawn into the practical arrangements for Lelia’s safety. The contrast between her fearful manner and her willingness to help gives her a modest but distinctive place in the novel’s network of care.

Identity and Character

Eufemia arrives at Donna Fedele’s villa a few hours before Lelia takes leave of her friend. The narrator describes her as a little old woman, stooped and wizened, who might seem to have come seeking help rather than bringing it. She is associated with Santhià, and her old-fashioned appearance and anxious habits make her an affectionate target of Donna Fedele’s jokes. Donna Fedele mocks her antiquated clothes and large black caps with violet ribbons, as well as her recollections of supposed youthful romances and her frequent, imaginatively described confessions. Eufemia’s exclamations when she drops her glasses or a knitting needle also reveal how easily small mishaps alarm her.

The teasing is balanced by real solicitude. When Eufemia stays with Donna Fedele, her cousin takes pains to ensure that she lacks nothing, even as she makes fun of her. Eufemia’s presence therefore belongs to a familiar domestic intimacy: she is neither treated with formality nor left alone in her vulnerability. Her bewilderment at Donna Fedele’s questions about romance becomes part of this pattern. She laughs at first, then admits she does not understand what the word means; Donna Fedele responds by turning the burning of Lelia’s note into a practical, theatrical lesson, asking Eufemia to burn it in a silver dish, place the ashes in an envelope, and seal it.

Witness to Lelia’s Departure

Eufemia is present when Lelia leaves Donna Fedele’s home. Donna Fedele hopes aloud that Girolamo da Camin will allow his daughter to visit often, and Lelia’s eyes flash at the suggestion. The moment places Eufemia beside the two women at a parting that carries more feeling than she is shown expressing. Her role is that of a witness within the household, close enough to be present at the leave-taking but not made the center of its conflict.

Her concern becomes more active when Donna Fedele is ill. Eufemia sleeps in the adjoining room and hears her cousin lament through the night; the poor sleep and pain leave Donna Fedele unusually irritable. Eufemia’s distress prompts repeated questions, advice, and prayers, but these efforts initially draw irritated answers rather than comfort. When Donna Fedele reads Lelia’s note refusing to come and tears it up, she turns angrily on Eufemia and tells her to go away. Frightened and confused, Eufemia loses her bearings at the door, searching on the left for a handle that is on the right. Donna Fedele’s anger subsides almost at once: she calls Eufemia back, apologizes, and asks her to sit while she thinks.

The Journey to Montanina

After thinking over Lelia’s refusal, Donna Fedele has Eufemia help carry out the note-burning ritual. She tells her that after breakfast they will take the sealed ashes to Montanina, making the awkward, practical Eufemia a participant in her deliberately romantic gesture. The plan is physically taxing for Donna Fedele. The doctor has prescribed complete rest before the operation she intends to undergo in Torino, and Eufemia protests that traveling in her cousin’s condition, especially after a painful night, is imprudent. Donna Fedele nevertheless orders a carriage from Arsiero and arranges to confess at the cemetery chapel, which she cannot manage to reach on foot.

After the confession, Donna Fedele says the carriage and fresh air have made her feel better. The carriage stops by the chestnut tree known as the candlestick, and Eufemia climbs on foot to Montanina to tell Lelia to come down. The small task places her between the two friends at a moment when Donna Fedele, despite her illness, is making the effort to overcome her own pride and reach Lelia. Eufemia does not control that reconciliation, but she helps make the meeting possible.

Care and Narrative Significance

Eufemia’s role returns in the plans made after Lelia and Massimo Alberti reunite. Donna Fedele insists that Lelia cannot remain in Valsolda and proposes taking her to Torino; if permission can be obtained, Lelia may stay with the cousin at Santhià. The agreed arrangements include alerting the cousin to meet Lelia at the station and having Eufemia continue with her after recovering the trunk to which she gives a private, regretful sigh. Letters for Lelia are to be redirected from San Mamette to Santhià. These plans make Eufemia part of a concrete support network, even though the text does not assign her the authority or emotional intimacy that Donna Fedele exercises.

The contrast between Eufemia’s comic helplessness and her practical participation is central to her characterization. She is easily confused by a door, worried by a dropped object, and baffled by the language of romance; nevertheless, she keeps company with a sick cousin, accompanies the effort to reach Lelia, and is included in the arrangements for Lelia’s next journey. Her function is not to resolve the novel’s family conflict but to give its acts of care a domestic, bodily scale: concern appears as anxious questions, a walk up to Montanina, and a trunk that must be recovered before the journey can continue.