Fedele agrees to help bring Lilia and Massimo together

Donna Fedele’s agreement to help Don Aurelio bring Lelia Camin and Massimo Alberti together turns a private hope into a practical undertaking under severe time pressure. Asked for counsel and assistance, she responds with such evident goodwill that the priest is moved; their conversation begins the work of considering whether the two young people might be brought together, without yet securing either person’s feelings or a match.

The request and its urgency

The plan originates with Signor Marcello, who has asked Don Aurelio to speak with Donna Fedele about a matter he considers grave. The priest has come to revere Signor Marcello as warm-hearted, open, humble, and devoted to the Divine Word. Although Don Aurelio has reservations about Lelia—she remains to him something of a closed case, whose inner life might hold either genuine or misleading attractions—he cannot refuse the older man’s request and promises to do his best.

The practical difficulty becomes clear as Don Aurelio walks away from Montanina. He must first discover whether Massimo’s heart is free; if it is, he must find a way to direct him toward Lelia without making the intention obvious. He has little time. A letter from the Curia of Vicenza has dismissed him from the curacy of Lago di Velo and requires him to leave within fifteen days, along with the people and furnishings in the parish house. The order leaves him facing an uncertain future, but it also makes the proposed intervention urgent: Massimo might leave too, and the priest wonders whether the whole undertaking can be completed before his own departure.

His limited impressions of Lelia sharpen the uncertainty rather than resolve it. He has heard her play the piano expressively and seen her carrying wildflowers; he has also seen her beside Signor Marcello at services at Santa Maria ad Montes. He recalls little from her speech and is unsure whether she has read the Gospel in full. To him she appears intelligent, reserved yet capricious, and not so strikingly beautiful that Massimo would necessarily be captivated at first sight. These are the priest’s tentative observations, not a judgment that the proposed relationship is already possible.

Why Don Aurelio turns to Donna Fedele

Don Aurelio concludes that Donna Fedele is the person best placed to advise him. Though she does not often visit Montanina, he thinks she may know more about Lelia than he does and understands the delicate business of bringing people together. His request therefore depends on both her judgment and her willingness to become involved; he does not assume that he can simply arrange the young people’s lives himself.

He meets her on the road, seated with a girl from Lago on a fallen tree. Donna Fedele asks whether he has found Carnesecca. When she hears that Carnesecca is on the way to Villino delle Rose, she rises, surprised and pleased, and wants to return there quickly. Despite being mortally tired, she dismisses the girl so that she can speak privately with Don Aurelio. At first they discuss his dismissal—its circumstances and possible reasons—but he cuts off her conjectures. He fears that the discussion will draw her into angry words against the priests of Velo, and, more immediately, he has another matter to put before her.

The agreement

Don Aurelio tells Donna Fedele that the second matter is even graver, though more complicated, than his dismissal. As they descend, they are nearly at the hired carriage that has come up to the gate of Montanina. Donna Fedele is pale, yet her eyes are smiling. She offers to stop and talk if he has the courage to give her his arm; otherwise, she will sit in the carriage. The exchange makes her physical fatigue visible without preventing her from attending to him.

Because it is not yet eleven, Donna Fedele decides that Don Aurelio can come to Villino delle Rose with her and be driven back to Montanina by noon. The driver’s presence may prevent them from speaking freely on the journey, but she can give him a quarter of an hour alone at the villa. The arrangement is modest and immediate: it creates space for a serious conversation rather than claiming to settle how the courtship should proceed. Her acceptance supplies the counsel and cooperation Don Aurelio had hoped for.

Five minutes before noon, Don Aurelio is pushing open the small garden gate beside Santa Maria ad Montes that leads into Montanina. The burden he had carried has eased considerably. Donna Fedele has accepted the request with such emotional warmth and readiness to help that he is touched by gratitude, imagining that her goodwill has been awakened especially on his behalf. The scene lets the reader perceive the force of her kindness while also showing that Don Aurelio does not understand the full depth of her heart.

Scope and significance

The agreement is a first step, not a declaration that Lelia and Massimo are in love or that either has consented to be guided toward the other. Don Aurelio’s questions remain open: whether Massimo is emotionally free, how he might be encouraged without an obvious design, and whether there is enough time before the priest must leave. Donna Fedele’s contribution is to make those questions discussable and to lend the plan her judgment and effort.

The episode also places this attempted match beside Don Aurelio’s impending displacement. He has just received an order to vacate his home and curacy; nevertheless, he sets aside his own immediate distress to pursue Signor Marcello’s request and consider the young people’s future. Donna Fedele, herself exhausted, makes room for that concern. Their cooperation gives the proposed courtship its initial human support, while the short deadline and the priest’s incomplete knowledge preserve the uncertainty of what can actually be achieved.