"Is there a boat beneath?" demanded her companion, whose glance was unavoidably attracted to the movement.
"The water was never more quiet. But thou hearest those strains of the hautboys?"
"Are they so rare on the ca.n.a.ls, that they drive thee from the balcony?"
"There are cavaliers beneath the windows of the Mentoni palace; doubtless they compliment our friend Olivia."
"Even that gallantry is common. Thou knowest that Olivia is shortly to be united to her kinsman, and he takes the usual means to show his admiration."
"Dost thou not find this public announcement of a pa.s.sion painful? Were I to be wooed, I could wish it might only be to my own ear."
"That is an unhappy sentiment for one whose hand is in the gift of the Senate! I fear that a maiden of thy rank must be content to hear her beauty extolled and her merits sung, if not exaggerated, even by hirelings beneath a balcony."
"I would that they were done!" exclaimed Violetta, stopping her ears.
"None know the excellence of our friend better than I; but this open exposure of thoughts that ought to be so private, must wound her."
"Thou mayest go again into the balcony; the music ceases."
"There are gondoliers singing near the Rialto--these are sounds I love!
Sweet in themselves, they do no violence to our sacred feelings. Art thou for the water to-night, my Florinda?"
"Whither would"st thou?"
"I know not; but the evening is brilliant, and I pine to mingle with the splendor and pleasure without."
"While thousands on the ca.n.a.ls pine to mingle with the splendor and pleasure within! Thus is it ever with life: that which is possessed is little valued, and that which we have not is without price."
"I owe my duty to my guardian," said Violetta; "we will row to his palace."
Though Donna Florinda had uttered so grave a moral, she spoke without severity. Casting aside her work, she prepared to gratify the desire of her charge. It was the usual hour for the high in rank and the secluded to go abroad; and neither Venice with its gay throng, nor Italy with its soft climate, ever offered greater temptation to seek the open air.
The groom of the chambers was called, the gondoliers were summoned, and the ladies, cloaking and taking their masks, were quickly in the boat.
CHAPTER V.
"If your master Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him That majesty, to keep decorum, must No less beg than a kingdom."
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
The silent movement of the hea.r.s.e-like gondola soon brought the fair Venetian and her female Mentor to the water-gate of the n.o.ble, who had been intrusted by the Senate with the especial guardianship of the person of the heiress. It was a residence of more than common gloom, possessing all the solemn but stately magnificence which then characterized the private dwellings of the patricians in that city of riches and pride. Its magnitude and architecture, though rather less imposing than those which distinguished the palace of the Donna Violetta, placed it among the private edifices of the first order, and all its external decorations showed it to be the habitation of one of high importance. Within, the noiseless steps and the air of silent distrust among the domestics, added to the gloomy grandeur of the apartments, rendered the abode no bad type of the Republic itself.
As neither of his present visitors was a stranger beneath the roof of the Signor Gradenigo--for so the proprietor of the palace was called--they ascended its ma.s.sive stairs, without pausing to consider any of those novelties of construction that would attract the eye of one unaccustomed to such a dwelling. The rank and the known consequence of the Donna Violetta a.s.sured her of a ready reception; and while she was ushered to the suite of rooms above, by a crowd of bowing menials, one had gone, with becoming speed, to announce her approach to his master.
When in the ante-chamber, however, the ward stopped, declining to proceed any further, in deference to the convenience and privacy of her guardian. The delay was short; for no sooner was the old senator apprised of her presence, than he hastened from his closet to do her honor, with a zeal that did credit to his fitness for the trust he filled. The countenance of the old patrician--a face in which thought and care had drawn as many lines as time--lighted with unequivocal satisfaction as he pressed forward to receive his beautiful ward. To her half-uttered apologies for the intrusion, he would not listen; but as he led her within, he gallantly professed his pleasure at being honored with her visits even at moments that, to her scrupulous delicacy, might appear the most ill-timed.
"Thou canst never come amiss, child as thou art of my ancient friend, and the especial care of the state!" he added. "The gates of the Gradenigo palace would open of themselves, at the latest period of the night, to receive such a guest. Besides, the hour is most suited to the convenience of one of thy quality who would breathe the fresh evening air on the ca.n.a.ls. Were I to limit thee to hours and minutes, some truant wish of the moment--some innocent caprice of thy s.e.x and years, might go ungratified. Ah! Donna Florinda, we may well pray that all our affection--not to call it weakness--for this persuasive girl, shall not in the end lead to her own disadvantage!"
"For the indulgence of both, I am grateful," returned Violetta; "I only fear to urge my little requests at moments when your precious time is more worthily occupied in behalf of the state."
"Thou overratest my consequence. I sometimes visit the Council of Three Hundred; but my years and infirmities preclude me now from serving the Republic as I could wish Praise be to St. Mark, our patron! its affairs are not unprosperous for our declining fortunes. We have dealt bravely with the infidel of late; the treaty with the Emperor is not to our wrong; and the anger of the church, for the late seeming breach of confidence on our part, has been diverted. We owe something in the latter affair to a young Neapolitan, who sojourns here at Venice, and who is not without interest at the Holy See, by reason of his uncle, the Cardinal Secretary. Much good is done by the influence of friends properly employed. "Tis the secret of our success in the actual condition of Venice; for that which power cannot achieve must be trusted to favor and a wise moderation."
"Your declarations encourage me to become, once more, a suitor; for I will confess that, in addition to the desire of doing you honor, I have come equally with the wish to urge your great influence in behalf of an earnest suit I have."
"What now! Our young charge, Donna Florinda, has inherited, with the fortunes of her family, its ancient habits of patronage and protection!
But we will not discourage the feeling, for it has a worthy origin, and, used with discretion, it fortifies the n.o.ble and powerful in their stations."
"And may we not say," mildly observed Donna Florinda, "that when the affluent and happy employ themselves with the cares of the less fortunate, they not only discharge a duty, but they cultivate a wholesome and useful state of mind?"
"Doubt it not. Nothing can be more useful than to give to each cla.s.s in society, a proper sense of its obligations, and a just sentiment of its duties. These are opinions I greatly approve, and which I desire my ward may thoroughly understand."
"She is happy in possessing instructors so able and so willing to teach all she should know," rejoined Violetta.
"With this admission, may I ask the Signor Gradenigo to give ear to my pet.i.tion?"
"Thy little requests are ever welcome. I would merely observe, that generous and ardent temperaments sometimes regard a distant object so steadily, as to overlook others that are not only nearer, and perhaps of still more urgent importance, but more attainable. In doing a benefit to one, we should be wary not to do injury to many. The relative of some one of thy household may have thoughtlessly enlisted for the wars?"
"Should it be so, I trust the recruit will have the manhood not to quit his colors."
"Thy nurse, who is one little likely to forget the service she did thy infancy, urges the claim of some kinsman to an employment in the customs?"
"I believe all of that family are long since placed," said Violetta, laughing, "unless we might establish the good mother herself in some station of honor. I have naught to ask in their behalf."
"She who hath reared thee to this goodly and healthful beauty, would prefer a well-supported suit, but still is she better as she is, indolent, and, I fear, pampered by thy liberality. Thy private purse is drained by demands on thy charity;--or, perhaps, the waywardness of a female taste hath cost thee dear, of late?"
"Neither. I have little need of gold, for one of my years cannot properly maintain the magnificence of her condition. I come, guardian, with a far graver solicitation than any of these."
"I hope none in thy favor have been indiscreet of speech!" exclaimed the Signor Gradenigo, casting a hasty and suspicious look at his ward.
"If any have been so thoughtless, let them abide the punishment of their fault."
"I commend thy justice. In this age of novel opinions, innovations of all descriptions cannot be too severely checked. Were the senate to shut its ears to all the wild theories that are uttered by the unthinking and vain, their language would soon penetrate to the ill-regulated minds of the ignorant and idle. Ask me, if thou wilt, for purses in scores, but do not move me to forgetfulness of the guilt of the disturber of the public peace!"
"Not a sequin. My errand is of n.o.bler quality."
"Speak without riddle, that I may know its object."
Now that nothing stood between her wish to speak, and her own manner of making known the request, Donna Violetta appeared to shrink from expressing it. Her color went and came, and she sought support from the eye of her attentive and wondering companion. As the latter was ignorant of her intention, however, she could do no more than encourage the supplicant by such an expression of sympathy as woman rarely refuses to her s.e.x, in any trial that involves their peculiar and distinctive feelings. Violetta struggled with her diffidence, and then laughing at her own want of self-possession, she continued--
"You know, Signor Gradenigo," she said, with a loftiness that was not less puzzling, though far more intelligible than the agitation which a moment before had embarra.s.sed her manner, "that I am the last of a line eminent for centuries in the state of Venice."
"So sayeth our history."
"That I bear a name long known, and which it becomes me to shield from all imputation of discredit in my own person."
"This is so true, that it scarce needed so clear an exposure," drily returned the senator.
"And that, though thus gifted by the accidents of fortune and birth, I have received a boon that remains still unrequited, in a manner to do no honor to the house of Thiepolo."