savage parrots, which
sang and screamed with delight in the noise that rose from the crowd.
All the human life, therefore, which the spring drew to the casements
was perceptible only in dumb show. One of the palaces opposite was used
as a hotel, and faces continually appeared at the windows. By all the
odds the most interesting figure there was that of a stout peasant
serving-girl, dressed in a white knitted jacket, a crimson neckerchief,
and a bright coloured gown, and wearing long dangling earrings of
yellowest gold. For hours this idle maiden balanced herself half over
the balcony rail in perusal of the people under her, and I suspect made
love at that distance, and in that constrained position, to some one in
the crowd. On another balcony a lady sat; at the window of still another
house, a damsel now looked out upon the square, and now gave a glance
into the room, in the evident direction of a mirror. Venetian neighbours
have the amiable custom of studying one another's features through
opera-glasses; but I could not persuade myself to use this means of
learning the mirror's response to the damsel's constant "Fair or not?"
being a believer in every woman's right to look well a little way off. I
shunned whatever trifling temptation there was in the case, and turned
again to the campo beneath--to the placid dandies about the door of the
cafe; to the tide of passers-by from the Merceria; the smooth shaven
Venetians of other days, and the bearded Venetians of these; the
dark-eyed white-faced Venetians, hooped in cruel disproportion to the
narrow streets, but richly clad, and moving with southern grace; the
files of heavily burdened soldiers; the little policemen loitering
lazily about with their swords at their sides, and in their spotless
Austrian uniforms."

Having reached Goldoni's statue there are two courses open to us if we
are in a mood for walking. One is to cross the Rialto bridge and join
the stream which always fills the narrow busy calli that run parallel
with the Grand Canal to the Frari. The other is to leave this campo at
the far end, at Goldoni's back, and join the stream which is always
flowing backwards and forwards along the new Via Vittorio Emmanuele.

[Illustration: S. CHRISTOPHER, S. JEROME AND S. AUGUSTINE
FROM THE PAINTING BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
_In the Church of S. Giov. Crisostomo_]

Let me describe both routes, beginning with the second. A few yards
after leaving the campo we come on the r