Word: diligentis
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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Leila Drew rang the gate bell of the modernistic house at No. 1770 Calle Tronador. Inside, she passed two babies playing at a yard man's knee. She asked to see Señora Diligenti. The Señora was nervous and reluctant, but after a woman-to-woman sales talk Mrs. Drew got a look at the other three babies, in neat yellow cribs in a sunny downstairs nursery. She even had her hands on a picture of all five, when forceful Papa Diligenti (whose name means just what it looks like) came in and took it away...
Leila streaked back to her editor, who was skeptical. The Herald sat on the story four days, trying to check its accuracy. Then it ran the story on the back page, with plenty of hedging. By noon a horde of reporters besieged the once-calm Diligenti house. Cried Papa Diligenti: "I've kissed peace good-by forever...
Midwife Delfino wrapped the babies in cotton wool, bedded them down with hot-water bottles. There was no miraculous Dr. Dafoe, hardly any trouble. Papa Diligenti hurried back from Córdoba. After five days he took the mother and three of the babies home, the others two days later. Remembering the Dionne circus with horror, he swore the midwife to secrecy. Says Midwife Delfino: "I am a mother myself, and I swore on the lives of my children...