elf as keen in business, as you have been energetic in the
pursuits you have adopted, assuredly a great future is open to you, and
you may look to be one of the greatest merchants in the city of London.
I know not yet what offers Polani may make you here, but I hope that
you will not settle in Venice permanently, but will always remember
that you are an Englishman, and the son of a London citizen, and that
you will never lose your love for your native land.

"And yet, do not hurry home for my sake. Your two brothers will soon
have finished their schooling, and will, of course, be apprenticed to
me as soon as I return; and if, as I hope, they turn out steady and
industrious; they will, by the time they come to man's estate, be of
great assistance to me in the business.

"And now, you will be wanting to say goodbye to your friends. Be
careful this last evening, for it is just when you are thinking most of
other matters, that sudden misfortune is likely to come upon you."

Delighted with his good fortune--rather because it opened up a life of
activity, instead of the confinement to business that he had dreaded,
than for the pecuniary advantages it offered--Francis ran downstairs
and, leaping into his father's gondola, told Beppo to take him to the
Palazzo Giustiniani. On the way he told Beppo and his son that the next
day he was leaving Venice, and was going to enter the service of Signor
Polani.

Giuseppi ceased rowing, and, throwing himself down at the bottom of the
gondola, began to sob violently, with the abandonment to his emotions
common to his race. Then he suddenly sat up.

"If you are going, I will go too, Messer Francisco. You will want a
servant who will be faithful to you. I will ask the padrone to let me
go with you.

"You will let me go, will you not, father? I cannot leave our young
master, and should pine away, were I obliged to stop here to work a
gondola; while he may be wanting my help, for Messer Francisco is sure
to get into adventures and dangers. Has he not done it here in Venice?
and is he not sure to do it at sea, where there are Genoese and
pirates, and perils of all kinds?

"You will take me with you, will you not, Messer Francisco? You will
never be so hard hearted as to go away and leave me behind?"

"I shall be very glad to have you with me, Giuseppi, if your father
will give you leave to go. I am quite sure that Signor Polani will make
no objection. In the first place, he would do it