uld serve her but 'l'abita colla _coua_,' or
_cua_, (that is the Venetian for 'la cola,' the tail or train,) and
as her cursed pronunciation of the word made me laugh, there was an
end of all controversy, and she dragged this diabolical tail after
her every where.

"In the mean time, she beat the women and stopped my letters. I
found her one day pondering over one. She used to try to find out
by their shape whether they were feminine or no; and she used to
lament her ignorance, and actually studied her alphabet, on purpose
(as she declared) to open all letters addressed to me and read
their contents.

"I must not omit to do justice to her housekeeping qualities. After
she came into my house as 'donna di governo,' the expenses were
reduced to less than half, and every body did their duty
better--the apartments were kept in order, and every thing and
every body else, except herself.

"That she had a sufficient regard for me in her wild way, I had
many reasons to believe. I will mention one. In the autumn, one
day, going to the Lido with my gondoliers, we were overtaken by a
heavy squall, and the gondola put in peril--hats blown away, boat
filling, oar lost, tumbling sea, thunder, rain in torrents, night
coming, and wind unceasing. On our return, after a tight struggle,
I found her on the open steps of the Mocenigo palace, on the Grand
Canal, with her great black eyes flashing through her tears, and
the long dark hair, which was streaming, drenched with rain, over
her brows and breast. She was perfectly exposed to the storm; and
the wind blowing her hair and dress about her thin tall figure, and
the lightning flashing round her, and the waves rolling at her
feet, made her look like Medea alighted from her chariot, or the
Sibyl of the tempest that was rolling around her, the only living
thing within hail at that moment except ourselves. On seeing me
safe, she did not wait to greet me, as might have been expected,
but calling out to me--'Ah! can' della Madonna, xe esto il tempo
per andar' al' Lido?' (Ah! dog of the Virgin, is this a time to go
to Lido?) ran into the house, and solaced herself with scolding the
boatmen for not foreseeing the 'temporale.' I am told by the
servants that she had only been prevented from coming in a boat to
look