rchandise, and
Gerardo set forth on his voyage.

The trip to Beirut and back lasted usually six months or at the most
seven. Now when Gerardo had been some six months away, Messer Pietro,
noticing how fair his daughter was, and how she had grown into
womanhood, looked about him for a husband for her. When he had found a
youth suitable in birth and wealth and years, he called for Elena, and
told her that the day had been appointed for her marriage. She, alas!
knew not what to answer. She feared to tell her father that she was
already married, for she knew not whether this would please Gerardo. For
the same reason she dreaded to throw herself upon the kindness of Messer
Paolo. Nor was her nurse of any help in counsel; for the old woman
repented her of what she had done, and had good cause to believe that,
even if the marriage with Gerardo were accepted by the two fathers, they
would punish her for her own part in the affair. Therefore she bade
Elena wait on fortune, and hinted to her that, if the worst came to the
worst, no one need know she had been wedded with the ring to Gerardo.
Such weddings, you must know, were binding; but till they had been
blessed by the Church, they had not taken the force of a religious
sacrament. And this is still the case in Italy among the common folk,
who will say of a man, "Si, e ammogliato; ma il matrimonio non e stato
benedetto." "Yes, he has taken a wife, but the marriage has not yet been
blessed."

So the days flew by in doubt and sore distress for Elena. Then on the
night before her wedding, she felt that she could bear this life no
longer. But having no poison, and being afraid to pierce her bosom with
a knife, she lay down on her bed alone, and tried to die by holding in
her breath. A mortal swoon came over her; her senses fled; the life in
her remained suspended. And when her nurse came next morning to call
her, she found poor Elena cold as a corpse. Messer Pietro and all the
household rushed, at the nurse's cries, into the room, and they all saw
Elena stretched dead upon her bed undressed. Physicians were called, who
made theories to explain the cause of death. But all believed that she
was really dead, beyond all help of art or medicine. Nothing remained
but to carry her to church for burial instead of marriage. Therefore,
that very evening, a funeral procession was formed, which moved by
torchlight up the Grand Canal, along the Riva, past the blank walls of
the Arsenal, to the