t attired himself early, for some few of my
nightingales were young birds and not to be depended on, and I
had an idea of concealing him in the shrubberies to supply a
_flauto obbligato_ while our guests arrived. I had interrupted
my instructions to despatch him on some small errand connected
with the coloured fires, and he had scarcely disappeared among
the laurels, when along the path came strolling two figures I
recognized as fellow-countrymen--the young Lord Algernon
Shafto, of the English embassy, and his mother's brother, the
Venerable John Kynaston Worley, Archdeacon of Wells.
Lord Algernon wore a domino. His uncle (I need scarcely say)
had made no innovation upon the laced hat and gaiters proper to
his archidiaconal rank--though it is likely enough that the
Venetians found this costume as eccentric as any in the throng.
He had arrived in the city a bare week before; and walked with
an arm paternally thrust in his nephew's, while he made
acquaintance with the luxurious frivolities of a Venetian
carnival.

"As they passed me I stooped to trim the peccant wick of one of
the many lamps disposed like glowworms along the path: but a
moment later their voices told me that my countrymen had found
a seat a few paces away, in an arbour whence, by the rays of a
paper lantern which overhung it, they could observe the
passers-by.

"'A wonderful nation,' the Archdeacon was saying, in that
resonant voice of which the well-connected among the Anglican
clergy (and their wives) alone possess the secret. 'I may tell
you, my dear lad, that this visit to Venice has been a dream of
my life, cherished though long deferred. I had not your
advantages when I was a young man. The Grand Tour was denied
me; and a country curacy with an increasing family promised to
remove the realization of my dream to the Greek Kalends.
But in all those years I never quite lost sight of it.
There is a bull-dog tenacity in us British: and still from time
to time I renewed the promise to myself that, should I survive
my dear wife--as I hoped to do--'

"Here, having trimmed my lantern, I straightened myself up to
find that Mr. Badcock had returned and was standing behind my
shoulder. To my amazement he was trembling like an aspen