ith my affairs, senor. Pardon. Shall we go on to St.
Mark's?"

It was but a few steps across the piazza, and they were soon inside the
church. Then for the first time Mr. Cabot spoke.

"This church, Jean," said he, "is the link between the old art of the
Mohammedans and the Gothic art of the Christian era. It was planned as
a Byzantine church, and in it one can see many things suggesting St.
Sofia's at Constantinople. When St. Mark's at Alexandria was destroyed
by the Mohammedans many of its treasures fell into the hands of the
Doge of Venice, who promptly proclaimed St. Mark the new patron saint
in place of St. Theodore and set about building a cathedral in which to
put all the beautiful things he had acquired. Some parts of this
ancient cathedral remain, but most of the church was built by Doge
Contarini between 1063 and 1071. To the next Doge, Domenico Selvo, fell
the task of decorating it. You see, over here the building of churches
takes longer than it does at home."

"I should think it did," answered Jean. "Why, we think it is awful if
our churches are not all done in two years."

Giusippe smiled.

"Ah, we build not that way here, senorita," he said. "Three centuries
did our people spend in building into St. Mark's the marble carvings
brought from the East; erecting the altars; and adorning the walls.
These mosaics alone it took workmen two hundred and fifty years to
fashion. Venice was a rich Republic, you see, and could well afford to
put into this cathedral the money she might have spent on war. Above
the slabs of marble are the mosaics, senorita. So it was in St. Sofia,
my father told me; the slabs of marble near the ground and the
decoration above. This whole cathedral of ours is covered on all the
walls with mosaics--pictures made from bits of glass put together to
form scenes from the Bible or from history. Even the most ignorant
people who had had no schooling could read such stories, could they
not?"

Jean nodded.

She was dazzled by the beauty of the place--by the soft light; the
walls rich in gold and color; by the many wonderful things there were
to be seen. She was interested, too, in the smoothly worn, uneven floor
which showed where the piles beneath the church had settled.

"Mosaic makers, you know, Jean, began crude attempts at making pictures
in glass thousands of years ago, for glass-making was familiar to the
Egyptians as well as to the Phoenicans and Syrians. The Greeks and
Romans,