o the Merceria
for them. Then of course the nearest way home was through St. Mark's
Square. I made Lily go on the Florian side, so as to avoid the officers
who were sitting at the Quadri, and we had got through the square and
past San Moise, as far as the Stadt Gratz. I had never thought of how
the officers frequented the Stadt Gratz, but there we met a most
magnificent creature, and I had just said, 'What a splendid officer!'
when she gave a sort of stop and he gave a sort of stop, and bowed very
low, and she whispered, 'It's my officer.' I didn't dream of his joining
us, and I don't think he did, at first; but after he took a second look
at Lily, it really seemed as if he couldn't help it. He asked if he
might join us, and I didn't say anything."

"Didn't say anything!"

"_No!_ How could I refuse, in so many words? And I was frightened and
confused, any way. He asked if we were going to the music in the
Giardini Pubblici; and I said No, that Miss Mayhew was not going into
society in Venice, but was merely here for her health. That's all there
is of it. Now do you blame me, Owen?"

"No."

"Do you blame her?"

"No."

"Well, I don't see how _he_ was to blame."

"The transaction was a little irregular, but it was highly creditable to
all parties concerned."

Mrs. Elmore grew still meeker under this irony. Indignation and censure
she would have known how to meet; but his quiet perplexed her: she did
not know what might not be coming. "Lily scarcely spoke to him," she
pursued, "and I was very cold. I spoke to him in German."

"Is German a particularly repellent tongue?"

"No. But I was determined he should get no hold upon us. He was very
polite and very respectful, as I said, but I didn't give him an atom of
encouragement; I saw that he was dying to be asked to call, but I parted
from him very stiffly."

"Is it possible?"

"Owen, what _is_ there so wrong about it all? He's clearly fascinated
with her; and as the matter stood, he had no hope of seeing her or
speaking with her except on the street. Perhaps he didn't know it was
wrong,--or didn't realize it."

"I dare say."

"What else could the poor fellow have done? There he was! He had stayed
over a day, and laid himself open to arrest, on the bare chance--one in
a hundred--of seeing Lily; and when he did see her, what was he to do?"

"Obviously, to join her and walk home with her."

"You are too bad, Owen! Suppose it had been one of our own poor boys