ught it better not even to mention it to you at
present. It was purely the result of an accident."

"It was nothing of the sort," Maria said. "It was the result of your
keeping your eyes open and knowing how to put two and two together. I
did not know, Francisco, that it was a secret. We have not seen our
father since we have returned, and I suppose he thought we should see
nobody until he saw us again, and so did not tell us that we were not
to mention your name in the affair; but we will be careful in future."

"But how was it, Francisco?" Matteo asked. "Now I know so much as this,
I suppose I can be told the rest. I can understand well enough why it
was to be kept a secret, and why my cousin is anxious to get you out of
Venice at once."

Francis related the manner in which he first became acquainted with the
existence of the hut on the island, and the fact of its being
frequented by Ruggiero Mocenigo; and how, on catching sight of the
gouvernante in a gondola, and seeing her make out across the lagoons,
the idea struck him that the girls were confined in the hut.

"It is all very simple, you see, Matteo," he concluded.

"I will never say anything against learning to row a gondola in
future," Matteo said, "for it seems to lead to all sorts of adventures;
and unless you could have rowed well, you would never have got back to
tell the story. But it is certain that it is a good thing you are
leaving Venice for a time, for Ruggiero's friends may find out the
share you had in it from some of my cousin's servants. You may be sure
that they will do their best to discover how he came to be informed of
the hiding place, and he is quite right to send you off at once."

"What! are you going away, Francisco?" the two girls exclaimed
together.

"I am sailing tomorrow in one of your father's ships, signoras."

"And you are not coming back again?" Maria exclaimed.

"I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you again before very long,
signora. I am entering your father's service for good, and shall be
backwards and forwards to Venice as the ship comes and goes. My father
is returning to England, and Signor Polani has most kindly requested me
to make my home with him whenever I am in port."

"That is better," Maria said. "We should have a pretty quarrel with
papa if he had let you go away altogether, after what you have done for
us--

"Shouldn't we, Giulia?"

But Giulia had walked away to the window, and did not seem to hea