house, should come to us so late in the morning, but we could not deal
harshly with her on that account, met, as we always were, with plentiful
and admirable excuses. Who were we, indeed, to place our wishes in the
balance against the welfare of the sick neighbor with whom Giovanna passed
so many nights of vigil? Should we reproach her with tardiness when she
had not closed the eye all night for a headache properly of the devil? If
she came late in the morning, she stayed late at night; and it sometimes
happened that when the Paron and Parona, supposing her gone, made a
stealthy expedition to the kitchen for cold chicken, they found her there
at midnight in the fell company of the Cognata, bibbing the wine of the
country and holding a mild Italian revel with that vinegar and the stony
bread of Venice.

I have said G. was the flower of serving-women; and so at first she
seemed, and it was long till we doubted her perfection. We knew ourselves
to be very young, and weak, and unworthy. The Parona had the rare gift of
learning to speak less and less Italian every day, and fell inevitably
into subjection. The Paron in a domestic point of view was naturally
nothing. It had been strange indeed if Giovanna, beholding the great
contrast we presented to herself in many respects, had forborne to abuse
her advantage over us. But we trusted her implicitly, and I hardly know
how or when it was that we began to waver in our confidence. It is certain
that with the lapse of time we came gradually to have breakfast at twelve
o'clock, instead of nine, as we had originally appointed it, and that G.
grew to consume the greater part of the day in making our small purchases,
and to give us our belated dinners at seven o'clock. We protested, and
temporary reforms ensued, only to be succeeded by more hopeless lapses;
but it was not till all entreaties and threats failed that we began to
think seriously it would be well to have done with Giovanna, as an
unprofitable servant. I give the result, not all the nice causes from