where the houses rose but a storey in height above the square
pillars which supported the overhanging fronts, these unexpected columns
of rosy marble, delicate and unique, on which the windows seemed to
rest, gave singular distinction to these dwellings.

Often the people passing in gondola or bark glanced carelessly into the
depth of the open window space framed between those polished marble
shafts, for the familiar vision of a wonderful young face, beautiful as
a Madonna from some high altar in Venice; often, too, this vision of a
maiden bent above a child, with rare golden hair and great eyes full of
pain.

There was a little lingering on the landing as they left the gondola;
for the baby, waking from his long, refreshing sleep, had claimed his
share of petting before the great dark man who tossed him so restfully
in his strong arms went away. There was no one who could make the little
Zuane laugh like "babbo," though the tremulous, treble echo of the full
tones of the gondolier had a pathos for those who listened.

III

The little Zuane had eaten his supper of _polenta_ and, in the painted
cradle which his grandfather Girolamo had bought for him from under the
arcades of the Piazetta, lay at last asleep, consigned to the care of
all those saints and guardian angels who make the little ones their
charge, and who smiled down upon him from the golden aureoles and clouds
of rose and blue on the cradle-roof while, slowly balancing, it charmed
him into dreams.

And now, at her window, Marina had the night and the stars to herself,
over the still lagoon and down in its mirroring depths.

It was a sad little tale soon told, this tragedy of Toinetta which had
seemed so great to the dwellers in that home three years ago. A pretty,
wilful child of fifteen, who had grown up impatient of all needful home
restraint, finding rebellion easier because there was no mother to
control her--with a love of motion, color, sunshine, sound, and laughter
that made her an Ariel of Venice, as full of frolic as a kitten and as
irresponsible, choosing in her latest caprice one from the many lovers
who were ready for the wooing with the seriousness with which she would
have chosen a partner for a festa, since to-morrow, if something else
seemed better, this lover also could be changed. But the opposition of
the grave father and sister made their consent the better worth winning,
and set the youthful Gabriele in a more attractive light.