been placed in positions which have called for
the exercise of rare judgment, prudence, and courage; and you have come
well through it all. It is but four years since your father left you a
lad in my keeping. Now you are a man, whom the highest noble in Venice
might be proud of calling his son. You have no reason to regret,
therefore, that you have, for a year, taken up soldiering instead of
trading, especially as our business was all stopped by the war, and you
must have passed your time in inactivity."

In the evening, when the merchant and Francis were alone together, the
former said:

"I told you last autumn, Francis, when I informed you that, henceforth,
you would enter into my house as a partner in the business, when we
again recommenced trade, that I had something else in my mind, but the
time to speak of it had not then arrived. I think it has now come. Tell
me, my boy, frankly, if there is anything that you would wish to ask of
me."

Francis was silent for a moment; then he said:

"You have done so much, Signor Polani. You have heaped kindness upon
me, altogether beyond anything I could have hoped for, that, even did I
wish for more, I could not ask it."

"Then there is something more you would like, Francisco. Remember that
I have told you that I regard you as a son, and therefore I wish you to
speak to me, as frankly as if I was really your father."

"I fear, signor, that you will think me audacious, but since you thus
urge upon me to speak all that is in my mind, I cannot but tell you the
truth. I love your daughter, Giulia, and have done so ever since the
first day that my eyes fell on her. It has seemed to me too much, even
to hope, that she can ever be mine, and I have been careful in letting
no word expressive of my feelings pass my lips. It still seems, to me,
beyond the bounds of possibility that I could successfully aspire to
the hand of the daughter of one of the noblest families in Venice."

"I am glad you have spoken frankly, dear lad," the merchant said. "Ever
since you rescued my daughters from the hands of Mocenigo, it has been
on my mind that someday, perhaps, you would be my son-in-law, as well
as my son by adoption. I have watched with approval that, as Giulia
grew from a child into a young woman, her liking for you seemed to
ripen into affection. This afternoon I have spoken to her, and she has
acknowledged that she would obey my commands, to regard you as her
future husband, with g