my love, it will be quite soon enough to say what I think about
it."

"I should never have courage enough to do that, signora. I know what
you would say too well."

"What should I say?" Maria asked.

"You would say I was an impudent boy."

Maria laughed.

"I cannot think of you as a boy any longer, Francisco," she said more
gravely. "I have, perhaps, regarded you as a boy till now, though you
did save us so bravely before; but you see you are only my own age, and
a girl always looks upon a boy of her own age as ever so much younger
than she is herself. Besides, too, you have none of the airs of being a
man, which some of my cousins have; and never pay compliments or say
pretty things, but seem altogether like a younger brother. But I shall
think you a boy no more. I know you better now."

"But I am a boy," Francis said, "and I don't want to be thought
anything else. In England we keep young longer than they do here, and a
boy of my age would not think of speaking to his elders, unless he was
first addressed.

"What are you going to do with your prisoners, signor?"

"I shall take them direct to my house, and then go and report the
recovery of my daughters, and their capture. Officials will at once be
sent, with a gondola, to take them off to the prison. There can be no
question now as to the part Mocenigo has played in this business, and
no doubt he will be brought here a prisoner at once. Even his nearest
connections will not dare to defend conduct so outrageous, especially
when public indignation has been so excited.

"You do not know, girls, what a stir has been caused in the city on
your account. If it had not been for the citizen guard, I believe the
Mocenigo Palace would have been burned down; and Ruggiero's connections
have scarcely dared to show their faces in the streets, since you have
been missing. You see, every father of a family felt personally
grieved, for if the nobles were permitted, with impunity, to carry off
the daughters of citizens, who could feel safe?

"When this is all over I shall take you, for a time, back to our home
in Corfu. It is not good for girls to be the subject of public talk and
attention."

"I shall be very glad, father," Giulia said. "I love our home at Corfu,
with its gardens and flowers, far better than the palazzo here. The air
is always soft and balmy, while here it is so hot sometimes by day, and
so damp and foggy in the evening. I shall be glad to go back again.