if they didn't mind me. But I'll see what I can do further in quality
of courteous foreigner. Can you perhaps tell me how long you will be
obliged to detain us here?" he asked of the guard again.

"I am very sorry to detain you at all, signore. But what can I do? The
commissary is unhappily absent. He may be here soon."

The guard renewed his apathetic contemplation of the gondoliers, who
did not speak a word; the windy lamentation of the fishermen rose and
fell fitfully. Presently they went out of doors and poured forth their
wrongs to the moon.

The room was close, and with some trouble Ferris persuaded Mrs. Vervain
to return to the gondola, Florida seconding his arguments with gentle
good sense.

It seemed a long time till the commissary came, but his coming
instantly simplified the situation. Perhaps because he had never been
able to befriend a consul in trouble before, he befriended Ferris to
the utmost. He had met him with rather a browbeating air; but after a
glance at his card, he gave a kind of roar of deprecation and apology.
He had the ladies and Don Ippolito in out of the gondola, and led them
to an upper chamber, where he made them all repose their honored
persons upon his sofas. He ordered up his housekeeper to make them
coffee, which he served with his own hands, excusing its hurried
feebleness, and he stood by, rubbing his palms together and smiling,
while they refreshed themselves.

"They need never tell me again that the Austrians are tyrants," said
Mrs. Vervain in undertone to the consul.