On which St. Joachim, who seems to have been of
opinion that marriage after all _was_ rather a failure, said that,
as things were going on so nicely without him, he would stay in the
desert just a little longer, and offered up a lamb as a pretext to
gain time. Perhaps he guessed about his mother-in-law, or he may
have asked the angel. Of course, even in spite of such evidence as
this, I may be mistaken about the Virgin's grandmother's sex, and
the sacristan may be right; but I can only say that if the lady
sitting by St. Anne's bedside at Montrigone is the Virgin's father--
well, in that case I must reconsider a good deal that I have been
accustomed to believe was beyond question.
Taken singly, I suppose that none of the figures in the chapel,
except the Virgin's grandmother, should be rated very highly. The
under-nurse is the next best figure, and might very well be
Tabachetti's, for neither Giovanni d'Enrico nor Giacomo Ferro was
successful with his female characters. There is not a single really
comfortable woman in any chapel by either of them on the Sacro Monte
at Varallo.
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