by a long silence, during which they
were supposed to work and take effect on the mind of the delinquent.
Pignaver mentally reached the end of the intended admonition, and yet
Ortensia did not come.

[Illustration: 'The footman came back at last with a white face']

Then he lost his temper and sent one of the two servants to call her;
and at the same time it occurred to him that he was making himself
ridiculous in the eyes of the others by waiting for a mere chit of a
girl. He therefore sat down rather hastily at the supper-table in the
middle of the room and attacked the preliminary appetisers, shrimps,
caviare, and thin slices of raw ham, and the chief butler poured a light
white wine of Germany into his large glass; for the Senator was fond of
good eating and drinking.

But to-night he was not to enjoy his supper, though the caviare had
arrived that very day from Constantinople, and the shrimps were
precisely of the right size, which is very important to a true epicure.
The footman came back at last with a white face and said, in a trembling
tone, that neither the young lady nor Pina were in the house.

The Senator dropped his two-pronged fork, his jaw fell at the same time,
and at least four seconds passed before he recovered his breath. Then he
sprang up, overturned his heavy chair in his excitement, and rushed from
the room, followed by both the servants.

He searched the palace himself, he stormed, he raved, he cursed, he
threatened, but Ortensia was not to be found. Everything in her rooms
was in order, just as usual; she had gone to confession with her nurse
as she had gone scores of times before, but she had not come home. That
was all there was to be said about it.

At first no suspicion of the truth crossed Pignaver's brain. He believed
she had been kidnapped either for her beauty, or by miscreants who would
hold her for a ransom. Then he remembered the gondola and asked if it
had come back. Yes, it was below; the old head gondolier had taken
Ortensia to the Frari as usual, but he said she had returned on foot.
The Senator sent for him, but no one could find him now, though the
porter had been talking with him only ten minutes ago.

Nothing remained but to search Venice, and to inform the Signor of the
Night that the girl and her nurse were missing from the palace. Pignaver
forgot his supper altogether in his anxiety to lose no time.

The Signor was in his office, and was a distant cousin of the Sena