yry decorations. Readers of Henri de Regnier's
Venetian novel _La Peur de l'Amour_ may like to know that much of it was
written in this palace. We shall see porphyry all along the Canal on
both sides, always enriching in its effect. This stone is a red or
purple volcanic rock which comes from Egypt, on the west coast of the
Red Sea. The Romans first detected its beauty and made great use of it
to decorate their buildings.

Another rio, the Torreselle, some wine stores, and then the foundations
of what was to have been the Palazzo Venier, which never was built.
Instead there are walls and a very delectable garden--a riot of lovely
wistaria in the spring--into which fortunate people are assisted from
gondolas by superior men-servants. A dull house comes next; then a
_stoffe_ factory; and then the Mula Palace, with fine dark blue poles
before it surmounted by a Doge's cap, and good Gothic windows. Again we
find trade where once was aristocracy, for the next palace, which is now
a glass-works' show-room, was once the home of Pietro Barbarigo,
Patriarch of Venice.

The tiny church of S. Vio, now closed, which gives the name to the Campo
and Rio opposite which we now are, has a pretty history attached to it.
It seems that one of the most devoted worshippers in this minute temple
was the little Contessa Tagliapietra, whose home was on the other side
of the Grand Canal. Her one pleasure was to retire to this church and
make her devotions: a habit which so exasperated her father that one day
he issued a decree to the gondoliers forbidding them to ferry her
across. On arriving at the traghetto and learning this decision, the
girl calmly walked over the water, sustained by her purity and piety.

The next palace, at the corner, is the Palazzo Loredan where the widow
of Don Carlos of Madrid now lives. The posts have Spanish colours and a
magnificent man-servant in a scarlet waistcoat often suns himself on the
steps. Next is the comfortable Balbi Valier, with a motor launch called
"The Rose of Devon" moored to its posts, and a pleasant garden where the
Palazzo Paradiso once stood; and then the great and splendid Contarini
del Zaffo, or Manzoni, with its good ironwork and medallions and a
charming loggia at the side. Robert Browning tried to buy this palace
for his son. Indeed he thought he had bought it; but there was a hitch.
He describes it in a letter as "the most beautiful house in Venice." The
next, the Brandolin Rota, which a