Donna Rachele

Surfeited by whole years of public adulation, Signer Mussolini bethought himself suddenly last week of perhaps the most unnoticed and retiring woman in all Italy.

Summoned by a curt order, the Premier's sleek but thunderous motor shot to the portals of his residence, the Villa Toronia;* drew up with a screech.

Motioning his chauffeur to a seat beside the wheel, Il Duce seized it himself, kicked open the cutout, vanished before news gatherers could ask whither.

Roaring like a fire demon, the car devoured 250 miles almost without slackening. From Rome it fled across Umbria and Tuscany into the hills of Forli. A quirk of the thumb and Mussolini cut the ignition. An easy swing of the wheel and he coasted silently up the drive of a country villa at Carpena. Dazed, the Premier's chauffeur looked about him, rubbed caked dust from smarting eyes.

He saw two stocky little boys run toward the Man of Might. Tenderly, with a fluttering smile Il Babbo embraced them, turned to his wife.

For a day Bruno, Vittorio and Donna Rachele Mussolini enjoyed in Sabine rusticity the presence of Babbo Benito. Then, restless, he sped off with Donna Mussolini to Florence, visited their daughter Edda at the Institute di Poggio Imperiale, where she is a student. After luncheon Donna Rachele boarded a train for Carpena. . . .

For him the devouring motor. . . a race back through Tuscany. . . . ROME.

For months after her husband's triumphant march upon Rome at the head of his "Black Shirts" (1922), Donna Mussolini made no public appearance whatsoever. Then, on Jan. 7, 1923, she was created "Godmother of Fascismo" at a simple ceremony in Verona.

Her self-effacement is virtually total.

No mention of her is made in the "authorized" Life of Benito Mussolini, though several of his early mistresses are dwelt upon. The young Mussolini--hodcarrier, schoolmaster, editor--yet burned with an ardor which singed many a maid and dame ere ever he set the world on fire.

*By Margherita G. Sarfatti--Stokes (TIME, Feb. 8, Books).