for Venice with the fleet of the
Mocenigo! But, pardon me, fair Cousin; there is no need to bind _my_
loyalty with Cyprian titles and Cyprian lands. Let the Sovereign of
Cyprus seek _her own nobles_ for such favors."

"Shall I stoop to _buy_ the people of my kingdom?" she asked, a little
bitterly. "Is this thy honorable counsel?"

He rose at once. "My Cousin," he said, "thou art not thyself--thine
anger doth color thy speech. I crave thy promise to listen fairly to my
honest thinking--which it is not over-easy to bring thee." He spoke
compassionately.

"Forgive me, Aluisi; I listen."

"Out of thy generous heart, thou wouldst have covered me--who am a
Venetian--with Cyprian honors. I thank thee. But I will translate thee
to thyself. Was it 'to buy my loyalty?'"

"Nay, nay--but of appreciation--to show thee grace. Thou knowest it,
Aluisi!" Her repentance came swift and warm as that of a child.

"I know it well," he answered heartily. "Show but this thy grace to thy
Cyprian nobles and win them to thy court. They should come _first_ in
favor of their Queen."

"Have I been found lacking?" she asked, slowly; "and if--and if there
seemeth little to reward?"

"Reward that little openly, and there shall be more. Bethink thee: there
hath been great honor shown the Mocenigo."

"It was so ordered by the Republic," she began in a tone of
self-justification; then stopped with a sudden perception of his point.

"Was it for this, perchance, that the Cyprian nobles came less
heartily?" he pursued. "Is there no honor that might yet be granted to
that most noble knight, the Admiral Costanzo?"

"Whatever favor he would have is already his:--he was the friend of
Janus and my own," she answered in a tone of surprise that was almost
indignant. And then, with a lingering on the words that was
indescribably pathetic, she added:

"Janus hath written of him, '_Nostro caro, fedel a ben amato Sieur Mutio
di Costanzo_' (our dear, faithful and well-beloved seigneur) thou mayest
read it in our '_Libro delle Rimembranze_.' Could I do aught to add
thereto?"

For answer he bowed his head, in tender reverence for her thought: for
the loyalty with which she sought and treasured every token of nobility
that had been chronicled of her husband--for the proud discretion with
which she taught herself such utter silence on her wrongs--for the great
love which, growing to a _culte_ through those years of girlish dreams
and of fair anticipation,