-the Holy Mother would teach her----"

It was the supreme moment that does not come to all, yet when it comes
holds the making or the marring of a life--as the lightning gleams for
an instant only through a rift of cloud, awe-inspiring and too luminous
to be forgotten. To Caterina, on the verge of womanhood, it came with
the force of a prophetic vision, giving her sight of the tie between a
queen and her people--it was like the strong mother-love of a great
woman--all-embracing; the splendor of the pageant, the personal homage
had no longer part in the exaltation of that great moment--it was the
_real_ beneath it all that stirred her soul. She lost herself in the
emotion, seeking only for expression; she opened her arms wide to them
as if she would embrace them all, turning on every side to smile her
heart out to them--tossing kisses to the children who clapped their
eager hands for her--scattering sunshine with that rare magnetic power
which is the most wondrous gift that Heaven can bestow.

"_Simpatica!_" the responsive people cried with glowing faces.
"_Angiola!_--_Tanto Simpatica!_"

The Lady Fiorenza standing where she could see the face of her child
gave thanks for the vision, with joyful tears.

"This hast thou granted her, _Madonna mia Beatissima_, for a wedding
gift!"

IV

Now that the brilliant pageant of the Betrothal had taken place, life
went on serenely in the Palazzo Cornaro in San Cassan, while the seasons
came and went and Caterina developed into a charming maiden of
seventeen--expanding in the gracious atmosphere and the wonderful new
joys that it brought her, as a rose matures to its most radiant
perfection in the sunshine. Her eager mind which had hitherto known only
the meagre culture bestowed upon young Venetian maids of her time and
estate, awoke with ardent response, growing with leaps and bounds to
meet the new demands--yet always deepening because the spring of her
will had its impulse in noble emotions.

Her thin, restricted life had suddenly overflowed with interests: the
boundaries of her vision had opened far beyond the narrow confines of
the lagoons of Venice and the Euganean hills, as the consciousness
dawned upon her of a world that had been rich in beauty and vital
memories before Venice began to be. Life was beginning to pulsate
tumultuously in her veins; her heart was awaking. All the fulness and
delight of this germinal spring-time she owed to the lord and lover who