The opening of Marcello Trento’s will turns his sudden death into a question of inheritance, family authority, and Lelia Camin’s independence. It establishes her as his universal heir, but the news arrives alongside her father’s claim over a daughter he calls a minor, despite her acknowledgment that she is already twenty and a few months old. The estate gives Lelia a new material position without settling who can direct her choices or where she will live.

Death and the Will’s Opening

Marcello’s death had been unexpected. Giovanni found him dead at seven in the morning, sitting in bed with his upper body outside the covers and his head against the headboard. The doctor judged that death must have come instantly: Marcello’s face was calm, and there had been no attempt to get down or ring the bell. A lamp was still burning. Teresina also recalled that, before going to bed, he had passed repeatedly outside Giovanni’s door and opened the villa’s mountain-facing door. Later, plants that Lelia had placed in glass vases indoors were found outside in earthen pots, apparently left there by Marcello to catch the rain. These small, last actions gave his death an intimate domestic setting; they also preceded the practical arrangements that would transfer his estate to Lelia.

Donna Fedele Vayla offered Lelia help, and Lelia handed her a telegram announcing that Marcello’s agent would soon arrive from Vicenza with a notary. When Donna Fedele asked whether relatives should be notified, Teresina recalled that Marcello had repeatedly instructed her to say that no one should be troubled if he died. The agent and notary went to the magistrate in Schio the next morning, where they opened the holographic will that had been deposited with the notary. Donna Fedele did not wait for the process to conclude: unwilling to seem an intruder, she returned to the villa and said she would come back if summoned. No summons came. Instead, that evening, she received a letter reporting the will’s contents.

The Heir and the Disputed Age

The agent’s letter named Lelia Camin universal heir. It also recorded a separate legacy for Teresina: five lire a day, exempt from tax. The distinction mattered within the household. Teresina had believed Marcello made it clear that Lelia would inherit, and she could not understand why Lelia might refuse. She pointed out that the young woman had regularly sent money to her father through Teresina, and argued that accepting the inheritance would at least let Lelia continue helping him. Donna Fedele, by contrast, understood that pride might lead Lelia to turn away from what had been left to her. The bequest therefore arrived already shadowed by a possible refusal, not simply received as an unquestioned benefit.

The same letter disclosed a further complication. A telegram from Padova, signed by Girolamo da Camin, expressed condolences, declared that he was Lelia’s father, described her as a minor, and announced his expected arrival that day. The agent added that Lelia had acknowledged being Girolamo’s daughter but said she was twenty and a few months old; Marcello, by contrast, had believed her older. The report places two claims side by side without resolving their implications: the father asserts a status that would give him authority over his daughter, while Lelia’s stated age challenges his description. Her inheritance and her ability to decide what to do with it thus enter the story together with an unsettled question of control.

Girolamo’s Return and the Estate’s Leverage

Girolamo soon came to the Villino delle Rose to see his daughter. His manner was deferential before Donna Fedele, and he asked haltingly for permission to meet Lelia. Donna Fedele warned him that Lelia might refuse a conversation, but she had already insisted that the young woman receive her father if he asked. Lelia met him standing, rigid and unsmiling. He kissed her cheeks; she shivered but did not stop him. He praised her planned journey to Turin and gave her a packet of ten-lire notes, explaining that he had brought the money because Donna Fedele had written to him about the trip. He also spoke of rendering his accounts in a few months.

The narration makes clear that his courteous approach concealed a financial strategy. With only a few months left in his administration of the estate, Girolamo meant to appropriate as much movable property as possible and to behave humbly so that, once Lelia came of age, she might grant him a substantial allowance. He also hoped to persuade Francesco Molesin to agree to favorable terms with his creditors. Girolamo understood Molesin’s plan to bring Lelia into the family home: by keeping her there, controlling her, and preventing a marriage, Molesin could in practice command the Trento estate and bargain with the creditors from a position of strength. Girolamo did not seek that complete conquest. He could not manage a household with both Lelia and Carolina Gorlago in it, yet he found it still less possible to dismiss Gorlago. The inheritance brings father and daughter into the same room, but the narrator presents his welcome as inseparable from competing claims on her property.

Consequences for Lelia’s Choices

The consequences continue after Lelia leaves for Valsolda with Massimo Alberti. When Donna Fedele learns that Lelia has written to her father and is waiting for his answer, she initially treats a refusal as certain and insists that Lelia cannot remain there. Massimo reports the letter’s contents and suggests that the answer may not be negative; Donna Fedele accepts that possibility. She is also glad to learn that he hopes to obtain the post of local doctor in Valsolda, though she still believes Lelia must leave with her.

Donna Fedele proposes taking Lelia to Turin and, if her father permits, leaving her with a cousin in Santhià. After discussion, they plan for Donna Fedele to rest that day, see a doctor the next morning, and then travel with Lelia to Turin if medically cleared. They will telegram the cousin to meet Lelia at Santhià, while Eufemia continues with her, and have letters arriving for Lelia at San Mamette forwarded to the new address. Donna Fedele ultimately sets aside the question of paternal permission: Girolamo has always been deferential to her, the cousins’ home seems safe, and Lelia abhors returning to Velo. The arrangement shows the inheritance’s limits as well as its importance. Lelia is Marcello’s heir, but her immediate future still depends on negotiations among her father, Donna Fedele, and those offering her shelter; the will establishes what she has inherited, not an easy or uncontested freedom to use it.