to
lead her to the stairs of the cabin, as if she were disposed to descend.
Her back was no sooner turned, than Gino slid into the gondola, which
one shove of his vigorous arm sent far beyond the leap of man. The
action was sudden, rapid, and noiseless; but the jealous eye of Annina
detected the escape of the gondolier, though not in time to prevent it.
Without betraying uneasiness, she submitted to be led below, as if the
whole were done by previous concert.

"Gino has said that you have a boat which will do the friendly office to
put me on the quay when our conference is over," she remarked, with a
presence of mind that luckily met the expedient of her late companion.

"The felucca itself should do that much, were there want of other
means," gallantly returned the manner when they disappeared in the
cabin.

Free to discharge his duty, Gino now plied his task with redoubled zeal.
The light boat glided among the vessels, inclining, by the skilful
management of his single oar, in a manner to avoid all collision, until
it entered the narrow canal which separates the palace of the Doge from
the more beautiful and classic structure that contains the prisons of
the Republic. The bridge which continues the communication of the quays,
was first passed, and then he was stealing beneath that far-famed arch
which supports a covered gallery leading from the upper story of the
palace into that of the prisons, and which, from its being appropriated
to the passage of the accused from their cells to the presence of their
judges, has been so poetically, and it may be added so pathetically,
called the Bridge of Sighs.

The oar of Gino now relaxed its efforts, and the gondola approached a
flight of steps over which, as usual, the water cast its little waves.
Stepping on the lowest flag, he thrust a small iron spike to which a
cord was attached, into a crevice between two of the stones, and left
his boat to the security of this characteristic fastening. When this
little precaution was observed, the gondolier passed up lightly beneath
the massive arch of the water-gate of the palace, and entered its large
but gloomy court.

At that hour, and with the temptation of the gay scene which offered in
the adjoining square, the place was nearly deserted. A single female
water-carrier was at the well, waiting for the element to filter into
its basin, in order to fill her buckets, while her ear listened in dull
attention to the hum of the movi