A Foregone Conclusion

the calle, where there was no living thing in sight but a cat on a garden gate; now running a quick eye along the palace walls that rose vast on either hand and notched the slender strip of bl

oftiest windows; but the note of a peasant crying pots of pinks and roses in the campo came softened to Don Ippolito's sense, and

ical talare, or gown, reaching almost to his ankles, and then clutched the pocket in which he had replaced the linen handkerchief, as if to make sure that something he prized was safe within. He paused abruptly, and, looking at the doors he had passed, went back a few paces and stood before one over which hung, slightly tilted forward, an oval sign painted with th

re?" demand

d Don Ippolito in

ommand?" further a

for his voice, before he inquired, "Is i

cise

erhaps a

ow. I will

olito close it again, she called out from her height, "Favor me above." He climbed the dim stairway to the point where she stood, and followed her to a door, which she flung open into an apartment so brightly lit by a window looking on the sunny canal, that he blinked as he entered. "Signor Console," said the o

footing of equality with other men under the folds of the national banner. Mr. Ferris had the prejudice of all Italian sympathizers against the priests; but for this he could hardly have found anything in Don Ippolito to alarm dislike. His face was a little thin, and the chin was delicate; the nose had a fine, Dantesque curve, but its final droop gave a melancholy cast to a countenance expressive of a gentle and kindly spirit; the eyes were large and dark and full of a

y place," answered

the Canalazzo than on the

ithout

son commences, and the Signor Console's countrymen will be coming to Venice. Perhaps," added Don Ippolito with a polite d

t leisure for the present. In what c

, wiped his forehead with it, and rolled it upon his knee. He looked at the door, and all round

Signor Console gives

ed Mr. Ferris, wit

o be helpless against it. He continued hastily: "Could t

nded the consul in the voice of a m

can ci

of the Ameri

subject," returned Don Ippolito a little bitterly, as i

e gently. "You know," he explained, "that no government can give

to America an American p

t now, on account of the secessionists, they do require you to show a passport at New York; but," he continued more boldly, "American passports are usually for Europe;

hen added with an indescribable weariness, "Patience! Signor Console, I ask you

know why he had come on such an errand, or whether he had some kindlier motive, he could hardly have told

polito. "I really had a kind of h

y," interrupted Mr. Fe

ity. I was so ignorant about the other matter

can't say," answered Mr.

ich he kept his linen handkerchief. "I had something that it had come into my head

xion of blonde girls; their uniforms fitted like kid gloves; the pale blue, or pure white, or huzzar black of their coats was ravishingly set off by their red or gold trimmings; and they were hard to make understand that brigadiers of American birth swarmed at Washington, and that if they went thither, they must go as soldiers of fortune at their own risk. But they were very polite; they begged pardon when they knocked their scabbards against the consul's furniture, at the door they each made him a magnificent obeisance, said "Servus!" in their great voices, and were shown out by the old Marina, abhorrent of their uniforms and doubtfu

the consul's mood, "the model of a weapon of my contrivance, which I thought the government of the No

We have no war with S

e haste to explain, "but those of So

Americans. We are fighting our own

situation. Don Ippolito nodded his head contritely, and when Mr. Ferris had ended, he was so much abashed that he made no motion to show his invention till the other added, "But no matter; I suppose the contrivanc

ich is original. The grand feature of my invention, however, is this secret chamber in the breech, which is intended to hold an explosive of high potency, with a fuse coming out below. The gunner, findi

hiff, as if inhaling the sulphurous fumes of battle, or titillating his nostrils with grains of gunpowder. He was at least in full enjoyment of the poetic power of his inventi

the fearful toy over in his hand, and admiring the nea

hen fell silent with his eyes intent upon the consul's face. "What do you think, signore?" he presently resumed. "If this invention were brought to the notice of your generous government, would it not patronize my labors? I have read that America is the land of enterprises. Who knows but your government might invit

ertainl

cret chamber would not become so heated by the frequent discharges of the piece as to go off

reply, so that it was again Mr. Ferris who spoke. "You see, I don't really know anything more of the matter than you do, and I don't undertake to say whe

what would be thought of a priest," he asked with a bitter stress on the word, "

hat," said Mr. Ferris with a laugh. "May I ask," he pursued after an

many," replied Don Ippol

is warlike temper?"

e ingenious, but they said that even if they could be put in operation, they would not be what the world cared for. Perhaps they were right. I know very little of the world," concluded the priest, sadly. He had risen to go, yet seemed not quite able to do so; there was no more to say, but if he had come to the consul with hi

d into some proverbial phrases which the obliging Latin tongues supply so abundantly for the races who must often talk when they d

tock of English to him, for the sake of practice, as they told him; but there were peculiarities i

the safety of Italian, he added, "And I had also the help of an English ecclesiastic who sojourned some months in Venice, la

eived that what had puzzled him in Don Ippolito's Englis

to America, and I thought that the first thin

kindly than he had yet spoken, "I wish I could ask you to sit down again: but I have an engagement which I

io: an easel with a half-finished picture on it; a chair with a palette and brushes, and crushed and twisted tubes of co

e out again, b

mself with painting, I see,"

In spite of the similarity of the speeches, I let that of Mr. Ferris stand, for I am satisfied that he did not know how unhandsomely Rubens had taken the words out of his mouth.] and as so open a matter needed no explanation, he said no more about it. Nor is it quite necessary to tell how, as he was one day painting in New York, it occurred to him to make use of a Congressional friend, and ask for some Italian consulate, he did not care which. That of Venice happened to be vacant: the income was a few hundred dollars; as no one else want

cably forth with a priest. The same spectacle was presented to the gaze of the campo, where they paused in friendly converse, and were seen to

and peered through the open door. "What is tha

tiny of the two through his glasses, "it's that crack-brain Don Ippolito Rondinelli. He isn't priest enough to hurt the consul. Perhaps he's been selling him a perpetual motion for the use of his government, which needs something of t