disgust or my remorse. But my disgrace drove me back to the _Casa
Kirsch_, to sleep for fifteen blessed hours before looking at one other
beautiful thing or troubling my head about what we were to do with our
days and our nights in Venice.

II

What we were to do with our days settled itself the next morning as soon
as I woke. For Venice, out of my window, was rising from the sea with
the dawn, everything it ought to have been the morning before, and I had
no desire to move from a room that looked down upon the _Riva_, and
across to _San Giorgio_, and beyond the island--and sail-strewn lagoon
to the low line of the _Lido_, and above to the vastness of the
Venetian sky.

Nor was there trouble in providing for our nights. Before I left home a
romantic friend had pictured me in Venice, wrapped in black lace,
forever floating in a _gondola_ under the moon. But my Roman winter had
taught me how much more likely the gas-light of some little _trattoria_
and _cafe_ was to shine upon me in my well-worn tweeds, my education
having got so far advanced that any other end to my day of work could
not seem possible. The only question was upon which of the many little
_trattorie_ and _cafes_ in Venice our choice should fall, and this was
decided for us by Duveneck, whom we ran across that same morning in the
_Piazza_, and who told us that he slept in the _Casa Kirsch_, dined at
the _Antica Panada_, and drank coffee at the _Orientale_, which was as
much as to say that we might too if we liked. And of course we liked,
for it is a great compliment when a man in Venice, or any Italian
town,--especially if he is of the importance and distinction to which
Duveneck had already attained,--makes you free to join him at dinner and
over after-dinner coffee. It is more than a compliment. It launches you
in Venice as to be presented at court launches you in London.

[Illustration: Painting by Joseph R. De Camp
FRANK DUVENECK]

We began that night to dine at the _Panada_ and drink coffee at the
_Orientale_, and we kept on dining at the _Panada_ and drinking coffee
at the _Orientale_ every night we were in Venice; except when it was a
_festa_ and we followed Duveneck to the _Calcino_, where various Royal
Academicians sustained the respectability Ruskin gave it by his
patronage and Symonds tried to live up to; or when there was music in
the _Piazza_ and, happy to do whatever Duveneck did, we went with him to
the _Quadri_ or _Florian's_; or wh