pened on these canals," he concluded, as they reached the steps in
front of the hotel.

Edith ran in, and soon returned with several letters for her mother
and herself, which they began reading while Rafael poled slowly back
into the canal.

"Listen to this," exclaimed Mrs. Sprague suddenly. "Tom tells me to go
to Verona, where his chauffeur is waiting with the automobile, and
take it to Florence for him."

"I don't like to leave Venice just as we have begun to enjoy it,"
said Edith. Then seeing that Rafael looked wonderingly at them, she
added, "Tom is my cousin, who is seeing Italy with his friend in an
automobile. He said it would take too long to see it with Mother and
me."

But Mrs. Sprague began reading aloud,--"We shall be gone into Austria
for more than a month, and I know you will enjoy a ride through the
Italian country."

Looking up from the letter, she said, "We will go to-morrow."

"How shall we find the chauffeur?" asked Edith.

"He is at the 'Hotel of the Golden Dove,'" said Mrs. Sprague. "There
will be no trouble in finding him."

"I prefer the winged lions of Venice to the golden dove of Verona,"
said Edith, looking up at the column in the Piazzetta.

"You will find a stone lion in the forum in Verona," said the boy.

"In the forum!" exclaimed Edith, "that sounds like Rome."

"Yes," said the boy rather proudly, "there is also an old forum in
Verona, but it is used now as a vegetable market. You can take a
picture of it with your camera."

"Perhaps I may," answered the girl; "but I shall first take one of
Juliet's balcony."

Rafael laughed. It seemed that he, too, had read "Romeo and Juliet,"
for he said, "You will be much disappointed in that balcony."

"Why so?" asked the girl, with a look of surprise.

"Because the house is not a fine one. It is in a block of tall narrow
houses. The street leads from the market-place and is so narrow that
the tram-car almost rubs against one's knees.

"Romeo had trouble enough, if he climbed to that balcony," he added.
"It is five stories above the sidewalk, and is hardly big enough for a
man to stand in."

"Perhaps Juliet's balcony overlooked the courtyard," Mrs. Sprague
suggested.

"As for the courtyard, that was full of worn-out carriages when I saw
it," Rafael answered, "It was not a good place for a lover to hide."

"I don't want to go to Verona and have all my dreams shattered,"
mourned the girl. "Shall I be disappointed in Juliet's tomb