the other hand, there had stood to love's
credit, as against those insignificant perils, only two kisses and no
more, exchanged when he had been so drenched with rain that it had been
quite out of the question to put a dripping arm round his lady's waist.

And now, for the first time in his life, he was suddenly alone with an
innocent girl of seventeen who loved him, and whom he loved even to the
point of having carried her off out of her house; he was alone with her,
in her own room, when she had but just risen from sleep, and she was
sitting beside him in the early sunshine, that wove a blaze of glory
round her young beauty, and her soft white hand held his; and he was not
satisfied as she was, but wished it were night instead of day, and
wished the sun were the moon, and that there were sweet silence without
instead of the thousand cries and echoes of a waking Italian city. For
all he had ever known of joy on earth, or ever hoped for, he would not
have wished that Ortensia's face could change into any that had once
been dear to him under the summer moonlight of the south; yet he felt
strangely constrained and awkward, like a schoolboy in love, not knowing
what to do or say in the overwhelming daylight.

'You are not glad, as I am,' Ortensia said after the long silence.

At the sound of her voice he found himself again, and he lifted her hand
and pressed it to his lips.

'I am afraid for you,' he answered. 'When a man has taken the most
precious thing in the whole world, and carries it with him through an
enemy's country, he may well be afraid lest some harm come to it on the
way.'

'But this is not the enemy's country!' laughed Ortensia, too happy to be
serious. 'Are we not a hundred miles from Venice and my uncle?'

'They say the Republic has long arms, love, and the Senator can count on
every one of the Ten to help him. The law cannot touch us merely for
having run away together, it is true, but what if he invents a crime?
What if he swears that we have robbed him? The Pope's Government will
not harbour thieves nor shelter criminals against the justice of Venice!
We should be arrested and given up, that is all, and then sent back!
This is what I fear much more than that he should have us tracked and
murdered by assassins, as many Venetians would do in this civilised
age!'

'But we have taken nothing,' Ortensia objected, quite unable to be
afraid of anything while her hand was in his. 'How can he accuse us o