pair of gentleman's gloves on a chair (their
perfume of ambergris betrayed their owner) left no room for doubt. Much
irritated at Steno's atrocious licentiousness, the Doge wrote to him
next morning, commanding him to avoid all approach to the palace and
the Dogaressa, on pain of banishment. Steno was furious at the
miscarriage of his deep-laid plot, and the shame of banishment from his
idol. And as he could not but see, from his enforced distance, that the
Dogaressa spoke gently and courteously (as was her nature) with other
young members of the Signoria, his envy and the wicked violence of his
passion made him think that she had refused to listen to him because
others had been before him, with better fortune. He had the effrontery
to speak of this loudly and in public.

"'Whether it was that old Falieri heard of these shameless sayings,
that the remembrance of that night came to him in the guise of a
warning hint of destiny, or that, whilst fully convinced of his lady's
uprightness, and while savouring to the full all the comfort and
happiness falling to his share, he nevertheless saw, in a clear light,
the extent of the danger arising from the unnatural relations between
them, the fact was that he became sullen and irritable. All the
thousand demons of jealousy tortured him sorely. He shut Annunziata up
in the inner chambers, and nobody was allowed to see her. Bodoeri took
his grandniece's part, and took Falieri soundly to task. But he would
hear of no alteration in his system of conduct.

"'All this happened shortly before Giovedi Grasso. Now it was the
custom that, on that great Festa, which the populace celebrated on the
Piazza di San Marco, the Dogaressa sat beside the Doge under a canopy
erected over one of the lesser galleries overlooking the Piazza.
Bodoeri reminded him of this, and thought and urged that if he excluded
Annunziata from taking her part in this ceremony, against all use and
wont, it would be in very bad taste, and he would be much ridiculed by
both Signoria and populace for his preposterous jealousy.

"'Old Falieri's sense of honour suddenly woke up. "Think you," he said,
"that I am such an idiotic old fool as to hesitate to shew my precious
jewel, lest I should not be able to keep thievish hands at bay with my
good sword? No, old lord, you are mistaken. To-morrow I and Annunziata
shall cross the Piazza di San Marco, in habits of ceremony; the people
shall see their Dogaressa; and on Giovedi