coolly added; "and let thy arrival there be timed, as near as may be, to
the first hour of the night."

"I would, Signore, that you had been pleased to command Giorgio and me
to row you to Padua!"

"The way is long. Why this sudden wish to weary thyself?"

"Because there is no Doge's palace, nor any Bridge of Sighs, nor any dog
of Jacopo Frontoni among the meadows."

"Thou hast little relish for this duty; but thou must know that what the
master commands it is the duty of a faithful follower to perform. Thou
wert born my vassal, Gino Monaldi; and though trained from boyhood in
this occupation of a gondolier, thou art properly a being of my fiefs in
Napoli."

"St. Gennaro make me grateful for the honor, Signore! But there is not a
water-seller in the streets of Venice, nor a mariner on her canals, who
does not wish this Jacopo anywhere but in the bosom of Abraham. He is
the terror of every young lover, and of all the urgent creditors on the
islands."

"Thou seest, silly babbler, there is one of the former, at least, who
does not hold him in dread. Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of
Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my
instructions."

"It is certain loss of character to be seen speaking with the miscreant!
So lately as yesterday, I heard Annina, the pretty daughter of the old