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Curiosity, I confess, led me to direct my gondolier more than once to the narrow canal over which the Palazzo Martinelli towered; and on each occasion I was rewarded by descrying, from the depths of the miniature mourning-coach which concealed me, the faithful count, seated in his boat and waiting in patient faith, like another Ritter Toggenburg, with his eyes fixed upon the corner window; but of the lady I could see no sign.

There enters now another and much more important character, one infinitely more interesting to my beautiful Lady of the Shipyards than any grandfather gondolier or staid old painter who ever lived.

But when she caught sight of Peter she looked only at him and he knew that her seeing him appearing thus on the shining water was its chief and exquisite wonder, and that she did not know what he saw. The gondolier steered straight for the girl without advice; he had thought privately that the Signore Americano was a little mad, but he knew now with what manner of madness.

It was much the same with the bridegroom. His features, indeed, proved him a true Venetian gondolier; for the skin was strained over the cheekbones, and the muscles of the throat beneath the jaws stood out like cords, and the bright blue eyes were deep-set beneath a spare brown forehead.

"I scarce know any in Venice, Annina; for the long illness of my mother, and this unhappy office of my father, keep me within when others are on the canals." "True. Thou art not well placed to make acquaintances. But Luigi is second to no gondolier in skill or reputation, and he is much the merriest rogue of them all, that put foot on the Lido." "He was foremost, then, in the grand race?"

"Give me your word then, that you will never upbraid me with the service I imposed on you." "I give you my word," said the old man, surprised; "but why do you exact it?" "Because," said the stranger, raising his mask, "I am no Venetian noble, but simply Antonio Giraldi, a gondolier like yourself." "You! Antonio Giraldi! And the lady ?" "Was your ward, Zanetta.

As the prow of the slender black bark entered a narrow side-canal and pursued its way between frowning walls and under low arched bridges, as the deep resonant cry of the gondolier rang out, and an answer came like an echo from the hidden recesses of a mysterious watery crossway, the spirit of Venice drew near to the three travellers, in whose minds its strange and exquisite suggestion was received with varying susceptibility.

When the money is little it is the gastaldo who pays much. And the toso all his faults blamed on the traghetti! Ah, signore, for the gondolier it is a life Santa Maria!" He threw up his hands with a feint of being at a loss to convey its hardships. "Come non c'è altro!" said the Veronese, laughing; "there is none like it."

Still, if I must spend it, there is the Howard Society, and the women and children without food and clothes at the Agricultural Hall. I thank the generous gondolier, and we go to the Hall a dismal, bleak place, ghastly with the memories of last year's opulence and plenty, and here Giuseppe's fare is swelled by the stranger's mite.

"This is no place to unmask, friend, even though we only wear our disguises in pleasantry. Tarry here, and at my return I will conduct thee to a more fitting spot." The words were scarcely uttered when Gino found himself standing in the middle of the court alone. The masked stranger had passed swiftly on, and was at the bottom of the Giant's Stairs ere the gondolier had time for reflection.