ng his back to Bodoeri, he looked out of the window. "It is a
long time to Ascension Day. By that time, I trust--the enemy being
conquered--victory, honour, new wealth, and brighter power will have
fallen to the share of the sea-born Lion of the Adriatic. My chaste
bride should find her bridegroom worthy of her."

"'"Ah!" said Bodoeri; "you are speaking of the grand Feast of
Ascension, when you have to cast the golden ring from the Bucentoro
into the waves, and consider that you wed yourself to the Adriatic Sea.
But, Marino, you, who are the sea's kinsman, can you think of no other
bride than that cold, treacherous element, which you fancy you command,
but which rebelled against you in such a threatening manner only
yesterday? What pleasure can you imagine there should be found in the
arms of such a bride--a foolish, self-willed thing who, as soon as you,
gliding along in the Bucentoro, did but gently caress her chill, blue
cheek, rose up in storm and wrath? No, no, Marino; _my_ notion is that
you should marry the loveliest daughter of earth that can be
discovered."

"'"My old friend," said Falieri, in a murmur, "this is a mere senile
dream of yours." As he spoke, he still looked out of the window. "An
old man of eighty, bent and worn with labour and anxiety, who has never
been married, can hardly be capable of love."

"'"Stay," answered Bodoeri; "do not calumniate yourself. Does not
winter, for all his rawness and cold, at last stretch arms all longing
towards the beautiful goddess who comes to him borne on the wings of
the warm, gentle zephyrs? And when he clasps her to his chilled breast,
and the soft rapture runs through his members, where are his ice and
snow? You say you are nearly eighty; and it is true. But do you reckon
man's age merely by his years? Do you not hold your head as high and
walk with as firm a tread as you did forty years ago? Or perhaps you
feel (though I know you do not) that your strength has begun to fail;
that you have to wear a lighter sword; that a rapid pace wearies you;
that you cough and fetch breath as you mount the steps of the ducal
palace?"

"'"By Heaven, I do not!" Falieri interrupted his friend, leaving the
window, and striding up to him with a rapid, vigorous step. "No, by
Heaven! I trace nothing of that."

"'"Well then," said Bodoeri, "enjoy, with an old man's enjoyment, and
with all _your_ capacity for enjoyment, all the earthly pleasures which
are appointed for you. Take