"Madre mia!" cried Marcantonio eagerly, when they were gone; "it has
come even before our hope!"

"Even sooner than thy hope," she echoed, feeling dreary, though he was
sitting with his arm around her, as if for a confidential talk.

But he was too happy to interpret her tone.

"The token!" he pleaded; "for Marina--and thou wilt come to see how
beautiful she is!"

She looked at him searchingly. He did not mean to urge her; he seemed
too happy to understand.

She rose and going slowly to her cabinet brought him her token--a string
of great Oriental pearls.

"These," she said, sitting down beside her son and opening the case,
"have I made ready for thy bride, since thou wert a little lad--at one
time one pearl, at another more, as I have found the rarest lustre. Some
of these, they say, have been hidden in Venice since the time of John of
Constantinople, who left them for his ransom; it may be but a tale, yet
they are rare in tint; and I have gleaned them, Marco, since thou wert a
little lad, not knowing who should wear them--not knowing, Marco----"

She broke off suddenly, touching the gems wistfully, endearingly, with
trembling, tapering fingers.

He laid his firm young hand upon hers lovingly. "How good thou art, my
mother; how good to think of thy boy through all these years! But thy