carnival, through all the time of my acquaintance with him, I never knew
him break these habits but once, and that was when his mother died at
Mestre and he had to attend the funeral. On that occasion he must rise
at six, and miss his dinner at noon. He was furious, I never saw a man
so angry.

I cannot tell how or when it was that I first spent the whole of my
afternoons in Aurelia's society, nor how or when it was that, instead of
leaving her house at seven in the evening, I stayed on with her till the
stroke of nine, within a few minutes of the doctor's homecoming. It is a
thing as remarkable as true that nothing is easier to form than a habit,
and nothing more difficult to break. Formed and unbroken these habits
were, unheeded by ourselves, but not altogether unperceived. There was
one member of the household who perceived them, and never approved. I
remember that old Nonna used to shake her finger at us as we sat
reading, and how she used to call out the progress of the quarters from
the kitchen, where she was busy with her master's supper. But my beloved
mistress could not, and I would not, take any warning. It became a sort
of joke between Aurelia and me to see whether Nonna would miss one of
the quarters. She never did; and as often as not, when nine struck and I
not gone, she would bundle me out of doors by the shoulders and scold
her young mistress in shrill Venetian, loud enough for me to hear at my
own chamber door. Aurelia used to tell me all she had said next morning.
She had an excellent gift of mimicry; could do Nonna and (I grieve to
say) the doctor to the life.

The end of this may be guessed. Privilege after privilege was carelessly
accorded by Aurelia, and greedily possessed by me. At the end of six
months' residence those three still evening hours existed, not for the
blessedness of such intercourse alone, but to be crowned by the