hurch rose against the speck-less azure of the vernal heaven. As he went along, he frowned in a helpless perplexity with the case of Don Ippolito, whom he had begun b

e damp shadows of the calles. His ear was taken by the vibrant jargoning of the boatmen as they pushed their craft under the bridges he crossed, and the keen notes of the canaries and the songs of the golden-billed blackbirds whose cages hung at lattices far overhead. Heaps of oranges, topped by the fairest cut in halves, gave their color, at frequent intervals, to the dusky corners and recesses and the long-drawn cry of the venders, "Oranges of Palermo!" rose above the clatter of feet and the clamor of other voices. At a little shop where butter and eggs and milk abounded, together with early flowers of various sorts, he bought a bunch of hyacinths, blue and white and yellow, and he presently stood smelling these while he waited in the hotel parlor for the ladies to whom he had sent his card. He turned at the sound of drifting drapery, and could not forbear placing the hyacinths in the hand of Miss Florida Vervain, who had come into the room to receive him. She was a girl of about seventeen years, who looked older; she was tall rather than short, and rather full,-though it could not be said that she erred in point of solidity. In the attitudes of shy hauteur into which she co

g of this anxiety in its guarded tones, and yet was not wanting

were meant for by nature;" and in fact the hyacinths, with their smooth textures and their pure colors,

aid, "if you'll excuse me a momen

urn, her mother rust

xact position, where he stood with a smile shaping his full brown beard and glancing from his hazel eyes. She was dressed in perfect taste with reference to her matronly years, and the lingering evidences of her widowh

telling Florida I can't stand it; we really must make some arrangement. To be sure, you oughtn't to think of such a thing as eating, in a place like Venice, all poetry; but a sound mind in a sound body, I say. We're perfectly wild over it. Don't you think it's a place that grows upon you very much, Mr. Ferris? All those associations,-it does seem too much; and the gondolas everywhere. But I'm always afraid the gondoliers cheat us; and in the stores I never feel safe a moment-not a moment. I do think the Venetians are lacking in truthfulness, a little. I don't believe they understand o

bout corals, Mrs. Vervai

eauty of the color; they're really exquisite.

whether to force the pleasure upon Mr. Ferris. "Won't it do another

e landing-stairs of the hotel: "What gloomy things these gondolas are!" she added, while the gondolier with one foot on the gunwale of the boat recei

o that question; they all do. But we needn't have the top on at all, if it

ds the cold chills over me to lo

not to mention him before, Mrs. Vervain. But I knew he

wn funeral when I get into it; and I've certainly had enough of funeral

her, and the brothers and sisters orphaned with her had faded and perished one after another, as they ripened to men and women; she had seen four of her own children die; her husband ha

It did seem a little too much when she went, Mr. Ferris. I was too young to feel it so much about the others, but we were nearly of the same age, and that makes a difference, don't you know. F

of a perfect, shining smoothness, broken by the shallows over which the ebbing tide had left the sea-weed trailed like long, disheveled hair. The fishermen, as they waded about staking their nets, or stooped to gather the small shell-fish of the shallows, showed legs as brown and tough as those of the apostles in Titian's Assumption. Here and there was a boat, with a boy or an old man asleep in the bottom of it. The gulls sailed high, white flakes against the illimitable blue of the heavens; the air, though it was of early spring, and in the shade had a salty pungency, was here almost languorously warm; in the motionless splendors and ric

s under the noonday sun. Miss Vervain stood looking out of the window upon the lagoon, while her mother drifted about the room, peering at the objects on the wall through her eyeglasses. She was praising a Chinese painting of fish on rice-paper, when a young monk entered with a c

nt good-will, and taking the monk into the easy familiarity of her friendship by

e painting. We hung it up there becaus

Armenian convent it's very misleading. I don't think you ought to leave it there; it certainly does throw people off t

enian paintings in Chinese

ind of Christians," she added thoughtfully, "but there can't be many of them left, poor things, hundreds of them executed at a time, that way. It

he library, the chapel, and the museum called out her friendliest praises, and in the last she praised the mummy on show there at the expense of one she had seen in New York; but when Padre Girolamo pointed out the desk in the refectory from which one of the brothers read while the rest were eating, she took him to task. "Oh, but I can't think that's at all good for the digestion, you know,-using the brain that way

Armenian book and pamphlet, and thus repaid in the only way possible the trouble their visit had given, he did not offer to take leave of them, but after speaking with Ferris, of whom he seemed an old friend, he led them through the garden environing the convent, to a little pavilion perched on the wall that defends the island from the tides of the lagoon. A lay-brother presently followed them, bearing a tray with coffee, toasted rusk, and a jar of that conserve of rose-leaves whic

r to leave San Lazzaro. I came here when I was very young, and the greater pa

never

onstantinople, sometime

tell you; you ought to go. You would like it, I know,

appealed once more t

ome in quality of distinguished foreigner, Mrs. Vervain, and I don

Providence. Rhode Island is a small State, but there's a great deal of wealth there, and very good society in Providence. It's quite New-Yorky, you know," said Mrs. Vervain expressively. She rose as she spoke, and led the way back to the

never can thank you enough for it. And now, do you know what I'm thinking of? Perhaps you can

erris mechanically, staring with hel

kind of instruction. I feel the need of it so much in my own case; for to tell you the truth, Mr. Ferris, I married too young. I suppose I should do the same thing over again if it was to be done over; but don't you see, my mind wasn't properly formed; and then following my husband about from pillar to post, and my first baby born when I was nineteen-well, it wasn't education, at any rate, whatever else it was; and I've determined that Florida, though we are such a pair of wanderers, shall not have my regrets. I got teachers for her in England,-the

at once observable in Mrs. Vervain should exist along with so much common-sense. "It's certainly very good in the abstract," he added, with a glance at the daughter, as if the sense must be hers. She did not meet his glance at once, but with an impatient recognition of the heat that was now

Ferris to himself; it is impossible to think well of

ties in the way. I may speak frankly with you, Mr. Ferris, for you are here as the representative of the country, and

s Vervain; and then

ze with you in my official capacity, I must own that as a man and a br

hing used to happen then. I don't know why Florida should be subjected to such embarrassments, too. It does

sted Ferris with a look at Miss Vervain, in whose silent suffering,

elderly teacher, they're as bad as any. It really is too trying. Now, when I was talking with that nice monk of yours at the convent, there, I couldn't help thinking how perfectly delightful it would be if Florida could have him for a te

stly. "I'm sure the Armenians never do anything of the kind. They're all very busy

There wa

speaks perfect Italian, for all that I can see; but I doubt if he'd undertake to impart t

. I had quite set my heart on it. I never took su

sides," said Ferris. "Padre Girolamo doesn't shower tho

Mr. Ferris, and it's very gratifying, all round; but don't you see,

American ladies traveling without protection. In the week which had passed since her arrival in Venice, there had been no day on which she did not appeal to Ferris for help or sympathy or advice. She took amiable possession of him at once,

ferent professional masters whom she had employed in the various countries of her sojourn, and a disquisition upon their several lives and characters, fortifying her statements by reference of doubtful points to her daughter. This occupied some time, and Ferris listened to it all with an abstracted air. At last he said, with a smile, "There was an

ly? Are you

ch militant. He came to me with the model of a breech-loading cannon he's invented, and he

daughter looked frankly into Ferris's fa

humor ought to have," he went on instinctively addressing himself to Miss Vervain, who did not repulse him. "He made me melancholy; and his face haunts me. I should like to paint

tfully. "I see as little rom

with high hopes of me, and expected me to receive his invention with eloquent praises. I've no doubt he figured himself furnished not only with a passport, but with a letter from me to President Linco

im the passport and the le

tate secret," r

he won't do f

n't i

e of it. Tell me some

more about him. Besid

ered the canal, and was swi

laying her hand on his arm. "I want you to

the nation, you know. Rebel priv

rper scrutiny of his face. Her glasses sprang from h

elpless laugh; then she turned toward her mother with a kind of indignant tenderness, and gently arranged her shawl so that it should not drop off when she

hyacinths, and stepping out upon the balcony flung the flowers into the canal. As she put do

you fancy they had begun to decay? The smell of hyacinths when they're a little old i

cried Miss Vervain, passionatel

rl on the sofa, she fondly took down her hands. "Do tell me what it was. Was it about your teachers falling

t account to have you talk it over with

But if it worried you, why didn't you do something to st

ve that you were right. It's better to let it go," said Florida with a fierce laug

lly as well as you. The talk just seems to keep going on of itself,-slipping out, slipping out. But you needn't mind. Mr. Ferris won't think you could ever have do

all endurance. I don't care what he thinks of me. Bu

and besides, I always feel as if consuls were a kind of one of the family. He's been very obliging since we came; I don't

", she said, bursting into angry tears, "he kept exchanging glan

agine why he should. I remember that I talked particularly well during our whole visit; my mind was active, for I felt unusually strong, and I was interested

t even then felt uncertainly about for

her," said Florida; "I'

late. I suppose it's getting into the sea air here at Venice; though it's mountain air that makes you drowsy. But you're qu

he pillows under her mother, and covered her with soft wraps. She laid her cheek against

into a deep slumber. Florida gently lifted her head away, and remained kneeling before the sofa, looking into the sleeping face