eye. "I have long suspected this, but none
has ever before said it, in my hearing!"

"Holy Maria pardon me! If I have uttered a syllable to pain thee,
excellent girl, it has been unwittingly and without intention!"

"We are poor, lady, and the needy must submit to do that which their
wishes might lead them to avoid. I understand your feelings, and will
make sure of your being secret, and Blessed Maria will pardon a greater
sin than any you have committed here."

While the ladies were wondering, at witnessing such proofs of delicacy
and feeling in so singular a place, the girl withdrew.

"I had not expected this in a prison!" exclaimed Violetta.

"As all is not noble or just in a palace, neither is all to be condemned
unheard, that we find in a prison. But this is, in sooth, an
extraordinary girl for her condition, and we are indebted to blessed St.
Theodore (crossing herself) for putting her in our way."

"Can we do better than by making her a confidante and a friend?"

The governess was older, and less disposed than her pupil to confide in
appearances. But the more ardent mind and superior rank of the latter
had given her an influence that the former did not always successfully
resist. Gelsomina returned before there was time to discuss the prudence
of what Violetta had proposed.

"Thou hast a father, Gelsomina?" asked the Venetian heiress, taking the
hand of the gentle girl, as she put her question.

"Holy Maria be praised! I have still that happiness."

"It is a happiness--for surely a father would not have the heart to sell
his own child to ambition and mercenary hopes! And thy mother?"

"Has long been bed-ridden, lady. I believe we should not have been here,
but we have no other place so suitable for her sufferings as this jail."

"Gelsomina, thou art happier than I, even in thy prison. I am
fatherless--motherless--I could almost say, friendless."

"And this from a lady of the Tiepolo!"

"All is not as it seems in this evil world, kind Gelsomina. We have had
many Doges, but we have had much suffering. Thou mayest have heard that
the house of which I come is reduced to a single, youthful girl like
thyself, who has been left in the Senate's charge?"

"They speak little of these matters, lady, in Venice; and, of all here,
none go so seldom into the square as I. Still have I heard of the beauty
and riches of Donna Violetta. The last I hope is true; the first I now
see is so."

The daughter of Tiepolo