work he
could do best, and that he was happy in doing it."

"And you had told Mr. Daymond, before that, that you were disturbed
about it?" Pauline asked, with a swift, uncontrollable contraction of
the heart.

"Yes; we had a talk about Nanni the evening of the illumination.
Pauline," May exclaimed, with a sudden change of tone, "what a waste it
is that that nice fellow hasn't any sisters!"

"Who? Mr. Daymond?"

"Yes; he would make such a perfect brother. He is so dear, and good,
and--_unromantic_!"

As the words fell, crisp and incisive on the still night air, their
point and meaning piercing like finely tempered steel to Pauline's
innermost consciousness, the search-light flashed out again, striking
full upon the Salute. For a fleeting instant the glorious dome curved
white and luminous against a lowering sky, vanishing again as the light
was withdrawn. Pauline caught her breath, and the blood raced through
her veins. She was startled, she assured herself, by the suddenness of
the flash.

When she spoke, her voice was tranquil as ever, yet curiously shot
through with feeling.

"If Geoffry Daymond told you that," she said, "I think you may feel
satisfied."

"I do," May answered, noting with surprise that her sister had given
Geoffry Daymond his full name;--it was not Pauline's way. "Yes, I do,"
she repeated, "it is a great relief."

It was only for a moment that Pauline's interest in her sister's story
had wavered. She had listened, and with unerring comprehension, thanks
to which she had not been misled as another might have been.

"There comes the moon out of the clouds," she exclaimed. "Take us where
we can see the moon, Vittorio."

"Si, Signorina."

They had come opposite the Salute, and now the prow of the gondola
turned in at the narrow _rio_ that runs between the great church and the
lovely old Abbazia of San Gregorio. There were deserted gondolas and
other craft moored at one side of the little canal, and as they pushed
their way past them, the oar lapped the water with the peculiar sound it
makes in passing through a restricted passage. They glided under a low
bridge, beyond which the moon appeared, just issuing from a bank of
cloud, and, a moment later, they had floated out into the Giudecca,
among the tall black hulls of the shipping lying there at anchor.

"How good and genuine the moon looks after those search-lights!" May
exclaimed, with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Yes, but they were a w