ike lime, relatively speaking," replied the
contractor.

Then they walked round the hall.

"How one loses time here," said the mason, replacing a thick silver
watch in his fob.

Luigi and Ginevra, sitting pressed to one another, seemed like one
person. A poet would have admired their two heads, inspired by the same
sentiment, colored in the same tones, silent and saddened in presence
of that humming happiness sparkling in diamonds, gay with flowers,--a
gayety in which there was something fleeting. The joy of those noisy
and splendid groups was visible; that of Ginevra and Luigi was buried
in their bosom. On one side the tumult of common pleasure, on the other,
the delicate silence of happy souls,--earth and heaven!

But Ginevra was not wholly free from the weaknesses of women.
Superstitious as an Italian, she saw an omen in this contrast, and in
her heart there lay a sense of terror, as invincible as her love.

Suddenly the office servant, in the town livery, opened a folding-door.
Silence reigned, and his voice was heard, like the yapping of a dog,
calling Monsieur Luigi da Porta and Mademoiselle Ginevra di Piombo.
This caused some embarrassment to the young pair. The celebrity of the
bride's name attracted attention, and the spectators seemed to wonder
that the wedding was not more sumptuous. Ginevra rose, took Luigi's arm,
and advanced firmly, followed by the witnesses. A murmur of surprise,
which went on increasing, and a general whispering reminded Ginevra that
all present were wondering at the absence of her parents; her father's
wrath seemed present to her.

"Call in the families," said the mayor to the clerk whose business it
was to read aloud the certificates.

"The father and mother protest," replied the clerk, phlegmatically.

"On both sides?" inquired the mayor.

"The groom is an orphan."

"Where are the witnesses?"

"Here," said the clerk, pointing to the four men, who stood with arms
folded, like so many statues.

"But if the parents protest--" began the mayor.

"The respectful summons has been duly served," replied the clerk,
rising, to lay before the mayor the papers annexed to the marriage
certificate.

This bureaucratic decision had something blighting about it; in a few
words it contained the whole story. The hatred of the Portas and the
Piombos and their terrible passions were inscribed on this page of the
civil law as the annals of a people (contained, it may be, in one word
only,