gain."

"Might not some other man, less finely tempered, have served in Cyprus?"

"Aye--if the Bernardini himself were not so finely-tempered! I was in
the Senate the day they put the choice before him--it was no secret, and
it proved the man. To do him honor the Senate gave him choice--and the
Senate doth more easily command. And this they laid before him. An
Embassy to France, of which he should be chief--his father held it
before him, and the Lady of the Bernardini hath been eager that her son
should bear his father's honors: that, measured with this mission to
Cyprus--to attend the charming little cousin, as private Chamberlain to
the Queen, forsooth,--a man twice her years and already of an
acknowledged dignity!"

"It seemeth not easy to translate his choice. What sayeth the proud Lady
of the Bernardini? For it is less honor."

"One knoweth not; she being of Casa Cornaro, of the elder branch, and,
like her son, of few words and great discretion. But she had lately
spoken with me of this embassy to France, wishing that her son might
hold it, thinking him well fitted for the place. Ah, well--she giveth no
sign; and to-morrow she also setteth sail for Cyprus,--being created
chief lady in waiting to her fair, young cousin."

"The Lady of the Bernardini in the court of the Caterina! Impossible!
She, in whose salons one might not think one's own thoughts!"

"By San Tadoro! one might think them, at one's ease, so only they were
of a quality to please her."

"And the Lady of the Bernardini to leave her splendid palace! Venice
without the Lady of the Bernardini!"

"Where hast thou been that thou knowest it not? It is even so!"

"Thou dost verily flatter the vanity of a man, Querini, to forget that I
am but two days returned with my cargoes from Flanders."

"Nay--thy pardon, friend. I mind it well enough and shall mind it better
when thou hast a chance to make us envious of the wares thou wilt
unburden from thy cumbrous, carven chests, for there is much talk of
their richness. But the ear of Venice is so attuned to these
wedding-chimes that it hath no chance to vibrate to another theme until
the rejoicings of the morrow be past."

"And the great estates of the Bernardini? I remember some rumor in the
Broglio, before this matter of Cyprus came uppermost, that the houses
would have been allied--a marriage between the little Caterina and the
cousin Aluisi--a dispensation to be gotten from His Holiness. It would
hav