with surprise and keen disappointment.

"There is surely some great error," she said; "for I had it in
confidence that the Embassy to France hath been offered thee by the
Senate."

He confessed as much.

"Thou wilt revise thy decision: I would gladly see thee wear thy
Father's honors. Thou hast the gift of statesmanship."

He waited to choose his words, for her tone betrayed more than her
speech, and he grieved to thwart her ambitions for him.

"So may it fit me the better for the Cyprian post," he answered with an
attempt at playfulness.

"Thou wilt verily give up this Embassy to France to go with the Caterina
to her new land! There is some reason of which thou sayest naught--else
were it hard to comprehend thy choice. We are but two, Aluisi; may not
thy mother hold thy confidence?"

For answer he raised her hand to his lips, smiling upon her. Her brow
cleared.

"It is not that the little cousin hath touched thy heart?" she
questioned half seriously--"thou who art known as gracious for all and
tender for none! I have not this to bear for thee--now that the marriage
which thy Father would have favored is no longer possible? Then France
were surely wiser for thee--the Fates are kind."

"Nay, nay," he answered frankly--"have no fear. When I set sail from
Venetia for my long voyage, the Caterina was still a child. And when,
returning, I found her grown a charming maid, she was already set apart
from all such dreaming for any honorable knight of Venice. Thou dost not
guess the spell that holdeth me?"

"It is not one of her fair maids of honor who go with her to her court
of Cyprus?"

"Nay, Madre carissima; thou art still before all others with thy wayward
son."

"Yet my wish for thee--of France--thou dost pass by," she interrupted
eagerly.

"It is but for duty to the Casa Cornaro,--in which thou wouldst be last
to see me fail, dear Lady of Venice!"

She laid her hand upon his arm as if she would constrain him.

"Tell me," she urged.

"Mother, when thy name and mine shall have been forgotten, _one_ name of
the Casa Cornaro shall stand out never to be lost--since Fortune doth
weave it into history. For honor to our house, we will not fail our
Caterina."

"And thou?"

"As thou wouldst have me--thou, my Mother--than whom among the Cornari
are none found prouder--I have sworn as solemnly as any knight may take
his vow,--were it even in Crusade--to spend myself in service of the
little Queen, my cousin-