the passage of the barge washed
a wave, conducted to a vast vestibule, that answered many of the
purposes of a court. Two or three gondolas were moored near, but the
absence of their people showed they were for the use of those who dwelt
within. The boats were protected from rough collision with the passing
craft by piles driven obliquely into the bottom. Similar spars, with
painted and ornamented heads, that sometimes bore the colors and arms
of the proprietor, formed a sort of little haven for the gondolas of the
household, before the door of every dwelling of mark.

"Where is it the pleasure of your eccellenza to be rowed?" asked Gino,
when he found his sympathetic delay had produced no order.

"To the Palazzo."

Giorgio threw a glance of surprise back at his comrade, but the obedient
gondola shot by the gloomy, though rich abode, as if the little bark had
suddenly obeyed an inward impulse. In a moment more it whirled aside,
and the hollow sound, caused by the plash of water between high walls,
announced its entrance into a narrower canal. With shortened oars the
men still urged the boat ahead, now turning short into some new channel,
now glancing beneath a low bridge, and now uttering, in the sweet shrill
tones of the country and their craft, the well known warning to those
who were darting in an opposite direction. A backstroke of Gino's oar,
however, soon brought the side of the arrested boat to a flight of
steps.

"Thou wilt follow me," said Don Camillo, as he placed his foot, with the
customary caution, on the moist stone, and laid a hand on the shoulder
of Gino; "I have need of thee."

Neither the vestibule, nor the entrance, nor the other visible
accessories of the dwelling were so indicative of luxury and wealth as
that of the palace on the great canal. Still they were all such as
denoted the residence of a noble of consideration.

"Thou wilt do wisely, Gino, to trust thy fortunes to the new gondola,"
said the master, as he mounted the heavy stone stairs to an upper floor,
pointing, as he spoke, to a new and beautiful boat, which lay in a
corner of the large vestibule, as carriages are seen standing in the
courts of houses built on more solid ground. "He who would find favor
with Jupiter must put his own shoulder to the wheel, thou knowest, my
friend."

The eye of Gino brightened, and he was voluble in his expression of
thanks. They had ascended to the first floor, and were already deep in a
suite o