cal period of betrothal--at any rate, it was resolved,
with Bodoeri's consent, that the marriage should be celebrated with the
greatest secrecy, and that then some days later the Dogess should be
introduced to the seignory and the people as if she had been some time
married to Falieri, and had just arrived from Treviso, where she had
been staying during Falieri's mission to Avignon.

Let us now turn our eyes upon yon neatly dressed handsome youth who is
going up and down the Rialto with his purse of sequins in his hand,
conversing with Jews, Turks, Armenians, Greeks.[19] He turns away his
face with a frown, walks on further, stands still, turns round, and
ultimately has himself rowed by a gondolier to St. Mark's Square. There
he walks up and down with uncertain hesitating steps, his arms folded
and his eyes bent upon the ground; nor does he observe, or even have
any idea, that all the whispering and low coughing from various windows
and various richly draped balconies are love-signals which are meant
for him. Who would have easily recognised in this youth the same
Antonio who a few days before had lain on the marble pavement in front
of the Custom-house, poor, ragged, and miserable? "My dear boy! My dear
golden boy, Antonio, good day, good day!" Thus he was greeted by the
old beggar-woman, who sat on the steps leading to St. Mark's Church,
and whom he was going past without observing. Turning abruptly round,
he recognised the old woman, and, dipping his hand into his purse, took
out a handful of sequins with the intention of throwing them to her.
"Oh! keep your gold in your purse," chuckled and laughed the old woman;
"what should I do with your money? am I not rich enough? But if you
want to do me a kindness, get me a new hood made, for this which I am
now wearing is no longer any protection against wind and weather. Yes,
please get me one, my dear boy, my dear golden boy,--but keep away from
the Fontego,--keep away from the Fontego." Antonio stared into the old
woman's pale yellow face, the deep wrinkles in which twitched
convulsively in a strange awe-inspiring way. And when she clapped her
lean bony hands together so that the joints cracked, and continued her
disagreeable laugh, and went on repeating in a hoarse voice, "Keep away
from the Fontego," Antonio cried, "Can you not have done with that mad
insane nonsense, you old witch?"

As Antonio uttered this word, the old woman, as if struck by a
lightning-flash, came