Girolamo da Camin

Girolamo da Camin is Lelia’s biological father, whose arrival after Marcello Trento’s death turns her inheritance into a struggle over both family authority and property. He presents himself as a returning parent, but his plans for Lelia’s estate are calculating and limited: he seeks not complete control so much as the money and leverage he can secure before she reaches adulthood.

Identity and Entry into the Story

A letter from the deceased man’s agent reports that Girolamo sent a telegram from Padua identifying himself as Lelia’s father, declaring her a minor, and announcing that he would arrive that day. The same letter records Lelia’s response: she acknowledged that he was her father and said she was twenty years and a few months old. The discrepancy matters because Marcello had believed her older, while Girolamo’s claim of minority places her under his asserted paternal authority just as she becomes the universal heir to Marcello’s estate. The agent also notes that Teresina receives a lifetime allowance of five lire a day, exempt from tax.

Girolamo is present at Marcello’s funeral, though Lelia refuses to see him and is confined to bed by a severe migraine. Donna Fedele later recounts that, after the funeral, he visited her and asked to see Lelia in a manner she thought more like a factor’s than a father’s. When Lelia would not meet him, he left apparently content. His first efforts at reconciliation therefore meet a firm refusal, and his claim to the role of father does not produce an emotional bond.

Plans for the Inheritance

The narration exposes the business purpose beneath Girolamo’s paternal posture. With only a few months of guardianship left, he intends to appropriate as much of the estate’s movable property as possible, then act humble and contrite in hopes that Lelia, once of age, will grant him a generous allowance. He also plans to mislead Francesco Molesin about the amount needed to secure favorable terms from his creditors. The inheritance is not merely a family resource in his calculations; it is a means of negotiating his own financial position.

His plan differs from Molesin’s. Girolamo understands that Molesin wants him to bring Lelia home, dominate her, and prevent any marriage that might place the Trento property beyond his control. Girolamo does not seek that complete conquest. Keeping Lelia and Gorlago under one roof would be untenable: he expects Lelia to leave, yet considers dismissing Gorlago even less possible. Their relationship is described as passionate, quarrelsome, mutually unfaithful, and nevertheless enduring. His domestic loyalties thus restrict the very paternal strategy that might otherwise give him greater command of the inheritance.

The Visit to Donna Fedele and Lelia

When Girolamo visits the Villino delle Rose, he means to suggest gently that he would like Lelia to live with him, while avoiding insistence and making himself agreeable to Donna Fedele. The narrator contrasts this approach with the paternal rights he has asserted to Molesin: before Donna Fedele he does not intend to wield them. His conduct is halting and deferential. He struggles to make a formal request to see Lelia, repeatedly presenting himself as unwilling to cause trouble, and approves Donna Fedele’s planned trip to Torino.

Donna Fedele’s assessment is far less favorable than his manners invite. She describes his appearance as resembling an old, dirty, badly painted wax head, and his speech as stiff and foolish. His constant assent makes him seem incapable of refusal, though she believes he is shrewd rather than stupid. The contrast between seeming obsequiousness and the narrator’s account of his financial designs keeps his awkwardness from reading as simple innocence.

Lelia receives him standing, rigid and grave. Girolamo approaches more eagerly than he had before Donna Fedele, greets and kisses her, and she allows the kisses while remaining stiff as a statue. She does not offer him a seat, and he is too hesitant to take one. He praises the Torino journey, then gives her a packet of ten-lira notes, describing the money as hers and promising to account for it in a few months. The gesture combines material provision with an unmistakable reminder that he still handles her funds; Lelia’s immobility and silence offer no sign that the reunion has repaired their estrangement.

Paternal Authority and Its Limits

Girolamo’s claim continues to shape Lelia’s options even when he is absent. After she has gone to Valsolda, she writes to him and awaits his answer. Donna Fedele initially expects a refusal and argues that Lelia cannot remain there; she considers taking her to Santhià, where a cousin could receive her, but worries about proceeding without paternal permission. Eventually, because Lelia abhors returning to Velo and Donna Fedele judges the cousin’s home secure, she decides to make the arrangement herself. The episode shows the practical force of Girolamo’s authority without establishing that he has answered the letter or agreed to the plan.

His role is consequently defined by a tension between formal kinship and failed intimacy. He invokes fatherhood at the moment Lelia’s age and inheritance make that status consequential, yet she refuses him as a person and remains wary of returning to his household. His effort to appear mild cannot erase the financial calculations the narration discloses, while those calculations are themselves constrained by his attachment to Gorlago and by Lelia’s capacity to reject his plans.