A Golden Book of Venice

es of the Piazetta, lay at last asleep, consigned to the care of all those saints and guardian angels who make the little ones their charge, and w

ht and the stars to herself, over the stil

sness with which she would have chosen a partner for a festa, since to-morrow, if something else seemed better, this lover also could be changed. But the opposition of the grave father and sister made their consent the better worth winning, and set the youthful Gabriele in a more attractive light. So the betrothal had been duly made in the presence of the numerous circle of friends and relatives who stand as witnesses at a betrothal feast in this City of the Sea, and who were as ready with their smiles and their felicitations for any e

ired. The custom was a survival of an earlier time, fast losing favor with the better classes of the people; but to Toinetta its dramatic possibilities held a greater fascination than the more sober ceremonial of the usual wedding service, and, all persuasion to the contrary, when the procession gathered in San Pietro in Castello, Toi

iumph and partly in pique, to her father's side, but Piero Salin, the handsomest gondolier on the lagoons, the most daring and dreaded foe of all the established traghetti. It had been impossible for the spectators from the body of the church to follow closely the movements of the twelve white-robed maidens with their attendant swains while the ceremony was progressing in the dim recesses of the choir, and the surprise and d

th, decorum, and duty had been outraged to a degree beyond Toinetta's comprehension-forgot it all in the overwhelming compassion with which she took her little sister in her arms and tried to help her liv

Piero scolded at her tears or temper she could not run away nor change him for a pleasanter companion, and she knew no other way to manage such a difficulty; and there was no pleasure in the Piazza because of that eternal critica. There was triumph still in

me guest. Through that slow year of Toinetta's life Marina was the veritable angel in the house, not conscious of any self-sacrifice, but only of living intensely, making the living under the same ro

or little Zuane; and Piero, over the water at his traghetto, w

ng of wistfulness came

Zuane? The evening hath been long

arge chamber which served as a private office, but where the father and daughter often sat alone in the evening;

I went to call thee, for it is an order from the Senate-thou see'st the seal-and a copy of the letter of the Ambassador of the Republic to the Lev

pattern furnished by the grand vizier of the sultan for a mosque lamp of a peculiar shape, wrought over with verses from the Kor

the broken lines of the characters have a charm, and the scrolls relieve the surface, making semblance

eir trouble, combated and borne together,

d the verse upon it shall be an ave, and in it there shall be always a light. It shall be a prayer for the little

lt," he explained, for Marina's eyes wandered from her father's face to the design with some astonishment. "It is even simple for us. But when the L

ina exclaimed in a tone of disappointment. "I knew not that our a

his, but not thou. In the time of Orseolo the mosaics were brought from the Levant for our old San Marco. Thus came the knowledge to us in those early days. But now there is no longer any country that sh

ame it

see'st thou, Marina, it is a mark of rare favor that they have trusted this parchment with me, and have not

answered, smil

or a moment with a caress still and tender, after his own grave fashion. "It will be safer so," he said, folding the parchmen

state papers, representing the highest attainment in this exquisite Venetian industry, which the Government held in such esteem that for a century past one of the chiefs of the Council of Ten had been appointed as inspector and supervisor of the manufactories. For further security the Senate had declared severest penalties against any betrayal

r portions of the room, and a charming picture of father and daughter was outlined against the vague darkness. Another lamp, fixed against a plate of burnished brass, cast a reflection that was almost brilliant upon the glory of this chamber-a high, central cabinet of the same dark, carved framework, wit

cks and hinges, stood open, and the inner silk curtain which protected these treasures from dust was always drawn aside by Marina's own hand when these evening lamps were lighted; they were so beautiful to see, if they but

is furnaces were among the most famous of Murano, and to him belonged secrets of the craft in his special field to which no others had yet attained, while in a degree that would scarcely have been esteemed by the merchant princes of Venice, who sat in the Consiglio, they had brought him wealth and repute. But to him, whose heart was in his work, it was power and glory that sufficed. No stranger whom it was desired to

yellow sunshine in its core; here the aquamarine, lucent as Venice's own sea! And here, throned in regal state, in its quaint case of faded azure velvet, is that very masterpiece of the glass-workers of Murano which was carried in the first solemn procession of all the arts at a Doge's triumph in the thirteenth century. Its very possession was a patent of nobility in Girolamo's reverent esteem; and the most gracious letter of the Senate, conferring upon this piece of glass the distinction of

n to a whimsical shape, blown and twisted almost into foam. "This Lorenzo Stino brought me only yesterday; he is full of genius; I

rmth, while her eyes wandered over the shelves. "Oh, father, here are so

it toward him; it contained a few bits of gold and silver enamel, t

ere from the stabilimenti of the Republic on Rialto-so early it came to us, this glorious art. And it was one Piero, a founder of our house, though the name was other than Magagnati, who was the master in that restoration. But the first mosaics in that old San Marco-ay,

thee, my