with sunshine, he began the ascent of the grand stairway which led to
the banqueting hall. The gleaming marble panels bore a fretwork of
sculptured foliage with symbols entwined--the mitre, the cross, the
sword--in richest Renaissance; but in all the decorations of this lordly
palace, of the most ancient of the Venetians, not once did the mighty
Lion of St. Mark appear.

When they had reached the landing opening into the banquet hall the
Senator, turning in the direction of his own apartments, released his
son with a motion of his hand toward the great, splendid chamber from
which issued ripples of girlish laughter; and Marcantonio stood for a
few moments under the arches which opened into it, looking on
unobserved, for here it seemed that the fête was already reigning.

The noble maidens who attended the Lady Laura, fresh and charming, were
knotting loops of ribbon in pendant garlands or grouping flowers in
great vases between the columns which crossed the chamber from end to
end--darting up the stairway to the gallery to alter a festoon in
garland or brocade. Sallies of laughter, snatches of song, and pelting
of flowers, like a May-day frolic, made the work long in the doing, but
full of grace; and now and again, as if any purpose were wearying for
such light-hearted maidens, they dropped their garlands and glided over
the polished floor, twining and untwining their arms--a reflex in active
life, and not less radiant, of the nymphs of Bassano on the painted
ceiling, between those wonderful, gilded arabesques of Sansovino.

There was a little shriek of discomfiture as they suddenly perceived the
young lord of the day, but the Contessa Beata Tagliapietra came saucily
toward him as he was escaping.