Lelia returns to Donna Fedele after leaving Montanina

Lelia Camin’s return to Donna Fedele follows a failed attempt to live at Montanina with her father, Gerolamo da Camin. The break is driven less by any open act of cruelty than by the atmosphere of his household: Lelia finds her father’s ingratiating submission unbearable, and the home that once seemed alive and maternal now feels spiritually dead to her. Her desperate return makes Donna Fedele, rather than her biological father, the person to whom she can appeal for shelter and help.

The inheritance and the proposed reunion

The crisis begins after the will of Lelia’s deceased guardian is opened at Schio. The agent’s notice identifies her as the universal heir and reports that Teresina is to receive a daily legacy of five lire, exempt from tax. It also conveys a telegram from Gerolamo da Camin, who declares himself Lelia’s father and announces that he is coming. The notice records that Lelia acknowledges the relationship and says she is twenty years and a few months old, while the deceased guardian had believed her older. The information places her inheritance, her age, and the return of her father into the same unsettled moment.

Gerolamo’s approach to Donna Fedele is outwardly deferential. He hopes to ask for Lelia’s company without pressing her, and to remain agreeable to the woman he understands to be her adviser. His private calculations, however, are more practical: with only a few months of control remaining, he plans to appropriate as much of the estate’s movable property as possible and hopes that Lelia, once of age, will grant him generous support. He also wants to persuade Francesco Molesin to accept favorable terms with the creditors. Molesin, in turn, expects that keeping Lelia at home and preventing her from marrying would let him dominate the Trento estate and bargain from a position of strength. Gerolamo does not pursue that complete control; he sees that keeping both Lelia and Gorlago in his house would be impossible, and he is unwilling to dismiss Gorlago.

When Gerolamo reaches Donna Fedele’s villa, his halting requests and repeated assurances of deference leave her unsure whether he is cunning or simply foolish. He approves of the proposed journey to Torino and asks, with difficulty, to see Lelia. Donna Fedele has already insisted that Lelia receive him if he asks, and Lelia submits to that instruction. She stands to meet him, rigid and grave. He kisses both her cheeks; she shudders but allows it, does not invite him to sit, and watches as he produces a packet of ten-lire notes. He presents the money as hers and promises to account for it in a few months. His awkward offer gives their reunion a material edge: the inheritance is not merely the subject of other people’s schemes but something he is already handling in her presence.

Why Montanina becomes unlivable

Lelia returns to Donna Fedele the following afternoon. She throws herself on her knees at her friend’s feet and says that she absolutely cannot go on living at Montanina. With her head pressed against Donna Fedele’s knees, she takes time to compose herself before she can explain. Donna Fedele gently strokes her head and asks her to rise and tell what happened. The pause and the posture make the appeal physical before it becomes a full account: Lelia comes not with a settled argument but in visible distress, seeking comfort from the person she trusts.

Nothing new has happened, Lelia explains; instead, she has come into contact with a reality she already knew and hated from a distance. Teresina remains in service after another woman has left, but even she can no longer bear the house, its master, or its company. The company is, in practice, Francesco Molesin, who tries to ingratiate himself by recalling old Camin relatives, a priest who celebrated his first mass at the Carmini, and a nun renowned for making pastries. These reminiscences do not make the place familiar or welcoming to Lelia. They sharpen her revulsion at being enclosed by a household whose inherited anecdotes cannot disguise its present character.

Her account of her father is pointed: he does not treat her badly. Rather, he is so humble, ceremonious, and ingratiating that she would almost prefer to be mistreated. He asks her permission before moving a chair or arranging for the hay to be gathered, and he is similarly deferential to Teresina. When an advance toward Lelia meets resistance, he retreats at once with a joking manner, as though he had never meant it. The narrator likens this tentative reaching and quick withdrawal to someone feeling through darkness for a flower among roses and finding a thorn. His politeness therefore offers no intimacy; it registers as an approach governed by calculation and fear of refusal.

The house itself has changed in Lelia’s perception. Its walls had once seemed alive and maternal; now they appear dead and unaware of her, cold with what she takes to be her father’s spiritual filth. She even harbors the monstrous suspicion that she may not be his daughter, though she does not tell Donna Fedele. The text presents that suspicion as part of her despair, not as a confirmed revelation. What is certain is her estrangement: neither the physical home nor the outwardly compliant father can provide a sense of belonging.

Donna Fedele as refuge and guardian

Donna Fedele listens while managing her own frailty. When Lelia pauses, she asks her to fetch a glass of water and the medicine dropper from the bedside table, takes her medicine, and resumes the conversation calmly. The small interruption sits alongside her attentive care: she is ill, yet Lelia’s distress draws her into the role of listener and protector. Her measured response also contrasts with Lelia’s agitation; she can hear the girl without forcing an immediate judgment about every implication of what she says.

That protective role becomes more consequential later, when Lelia is again away from the security of a settled home and awaits an answer from her father. Massimo tells Donna Fedele that Lelia has written to Gerolamo and that a negative reply is not certain. Donna Fedele accepts that possibility, but still concludes that Lelia cannot remain where she is. She proposes taking her to Torino and, if Gerolamo permits, leaving her with a cousin at Santhià. After a short discussion, she decides that she and Lelia will travel the next morning, subject to a doctor’s approval; she will telegraph the cousin to meet them at the station, and arrange for Lelia’s letters to be forwarded there. Although she initially makes paternal permission a condition, she eventually sets it aside, trusting the safety of the cousin’s home and Lelia’s horror of returning to Velo.

The later plan does not erase the earlier return; it extends its meaning. Lelia’s appeal to Donna Fedele creates a bond expressed through practical acts as well as tenderness: listening, making decisions, finding a safe destination, and accepting responsibility that Donna Fedele knows is not formally hers. The central reversal is that the father who claims a place in Lelia’s household and finances cannot make his home bearable to her, while Donna Fedele—her chosen confidante—becomes the person prepared to help her leave it.