suggestion of an aureole; and in the arbor, as in one of those homely
shrines which everywhere make part of the Venetian life, she seemed
aloof as some ideal of an earlier Christian age from the restless,
voluble group upon the tiny quay.

There were _facchini_--those doers of nondescript smallest services,
quarreling amiably to pass the time, springing forward for custom as the
gondolas neared the steps; _gransieri_--the licensed traghetto beggars,
ragged and picturesque, pushing past with their long, crooked poles,
under pretence of drawing the gondolas to shore; one or two women from
the islands, filling the moments with swift, declamatory speech until
the gondola of Giambattista or of Jacopo should close the colloquy; an
older peasant, tranquilly kneeling to the Madonna of the traghetto, amid
the clatter, while steaming greasy odors from her housewifely basket of
Venetian dainties mount slowly, like some travesty of incense, and cloud
the humble shrine. Two or three comers swell the group from the recesses
of the dark little shop behind, for no other reason than that life is
pleasant where so much is going on; and some maiden, into whose life a
dawning romance is just creeping, confesses it with a brighter color as
she hangs, half-timidly, her bunch of tinselled flowers before the red
lamp of the good little Madonna of this _traghetto benedetto_, whose
gondoliers are the bravest in all Venice! Meanwhile the boatmen, coming,
going, or waiting, keep up a lively chatter.

And under the trellis, as if far removed, the sleeping child and Marina
of Murano bending over him a face glorified with its story of love and
compassion, are like a living Rafaello!

"The _bambino_ is beautiful," said the artist, drawing nearer, but
speaking reverently, for he knew that he had found the face he had been