lly passed on; saw these things
without stopping to look at them, but yet saw them so that in all
after-life those peculiar effects of light and shade, fireshine and
moonlight, Italian fruits and vegetables, and fish coloured by the one
or the other illumination, were never lost from memory. Here there
would be a red Vulcanic glow in the interior of a shop where the
furnace fire was flaming up about the pots and pans of cookery; and at
the street front, at the window, the moonlight glinting white from the
edge of a dish, or glancing from a pane of glass; and then again
reflected from the still waters of a canal. The two saw these things,
and never forgot; but Dolly was silent and Rupert did not know what to
say. Yet he thought he felt her arm tremble sometimes, and would have
given a great deal to be able to speak to the purpose. Perhaps Dolly at
length found the need of distraction to her thoughts, for she it was
that first said anything.

"I hope mother will not wake up!"

"Why?"

"She would not understand my being away."

"Then she does not know?"

"I did not dare tell her. I had to risk it. I do not want her ever to
know, Rupert, if it can be helped."

"She'll be no wiser for me. What are you going to do now, Miss Dolly?
We ain't far off the place."

"I am going to get my father to go home with me. You needn't come in.
Better not. You go back to the gondola and wait there for a little
say--a quarter or half an hour; if I do not come before that, then go
on home."

"But you cannot go anywhere alone?"

"Oh no; I shall have father; but I cannot tell which way he may take to
get home. You go back to the gondola,--or no, be in front of St.
Mark's; that would be better."

"I am afraid to leave you, Miss Dolly."

"You need not. One gets to places where there is nothing to fear any
more."

Rupert was not sure what she meant; her voice had a peculiar cadence
which struck him. Then they turned another corner, and a few steps
ahead of them saw the light from a window making a strip of
illumination across the street, which here was unvisited by the
moonbeams.

"That is the place," said Rupert.

Dolly slackened her walk, and the next minute paused before the window
and looked in. The light was not brilliant, yet sufficient to show
several men within, some sitting and drinking, some in attendance; and
Dolly easily recognised one among the former number. She drew her arm
from Rupert's.

"Now go back to St. M