e servants, still in rough working clothes, sweeping the
steps, and trimming off the charred hemp-wicks of torches that had been
used in the night; the single woman's voice far overhead that broke the
silence of some narrow way, singing its song for sheer gladness of an
idle heart; it was all as it used to be, and Pasquale had a dim
consciousness that he loved it better than his dreary little den in
Murano, and better than his Sunday walk as far as San Donato, when all
the handsome women and pretty girls of the smaller people were laughing
away the cool hours and showing off their little fineries. It was but a
vague suggestion of a sentiment with him, and no more. He knew that he
should starve if he came back to Venice, and what was the pleasant smell
of the cabbage stalks and water-melons that it should compare with the
security of daily bread and lodging, with some money to spare, and two
suits of clothes every year, which his master gave him in return for
keeping a single door shut?

He pushed out upon the Grand Canal, where as yet there were few boats
and no gondolas at all, and soon he turned the corner of the Salute and
rowed out slowly upon the Giudecca, where the merchant vessels lay at
anchor, large and small, galliots and feluccas and many a broad
'trabacolo' from the Istrian coast, with huge spreading bows, and hawse
ports painted scarlet like great red eyes. The old sailor's heart was
gladdened by the sight of them, and as he rested on his single oar, he
gently cursed the land, and all landlocked places, and rivers and fresh
water, and all lakes and inland canals, and wished himself once more on
the high seas with a stout vessel, a lazy captain, a dozen hard-fisted
shipmates and a quarter of a century less to his account of years.

He had been dreaming a little, and now he bent to the oar again and sent
the skiff quietly along by the pier, looking out for any idle seamen who
might be led into conversation. Before long he spied a couple, sitting
on the edge of the stones near some steps and fishing with long canes.
He passed them, of course, without looking at them, lest they should
suspect that he had come their way purposely, and he made the skiff fast
by the stair, after which he sat down on a thwart and stared vacantly at
things in general, being careful not to bestow a glance on the two men.
Presently one of them caught a small fish, and Pasquale judged that the
moment for scraping an acquaintance had be