ice."

Violetta had leisure to reflect an instant, in passing from one room to
the other, and she began her communications with more reserve. But the
sensitive interest that a being of the gentle nature and secluded habits
of Gelsomina took in her narrative, won upon her own natural frankness,
and, in a manner nearly imperceptible to herself, she made the keeper's
daughter mistress of most of the circumstances under which she had
entered the prison.

The cheek of Gelsomina became colorless as she listened and when Donna
Violetta ceased, every limb of her slight frame trembled with interest.

"The Senate is a fearful power to resist!" she said, speaking so low as
hardly to be audible. "Have you reflected, lady, on the chances of what
you do?"

"If I have not, it is now too late to change my intentions, I am the
wife of the Duke of Sant' Agata, and can never wed another."

"Gesu! This is true. And yet, methinks, I would choose to die a nun
rather than offend the council!"

"Thou knowest not, good girl, to what courage the heart of even a young
wife is equal. Thou art still bound to thy father, in the instruction
and habits of childhood, but thou mayest live to know that all thy hopes
will centre in another."

Gelsomina ceased to tremble, and her mild eye brightened.

"The council is terrible," she answered, "but it must be more terrible
to desert one to whom you have vowed duty and love at the altar!"

"Hast thou the means of concealing us, kind girl," interrupted Donna
Florinda, "and canst thou, when this tumult shall be quieted, in any
manner help us to further secresy or flight?"

"Lady, I have none. Even the streets and squares of Venice are nearly
strangers to me. Santissima Maria! what would I give to know the ways of
the town as well as my cousin Annina, who passes at will from her
father's shop to the Lido, and from St. Mark's to the Rialto, as her
pleasure suits. I will send for my cousin, who will counsel us in this
fearful strait!"

"Thy cousin! Hast thou a cousin named Annina?"

"Lady, Annina. My mother's sister's child."

"The daughter of a wine-seller called Tomaso Torti?"

"Do the noble dames of the city take such heed of their inferiors! This
will charm my cousin, for she has great desires to be noted by the
great."

"And does thy cousin come hither?"

"Rarely, lady--we are not of much intimacy. I suppose Annina finds a
girl, simple and uninstructed as I, unworthy of her company. But sh