IN VENICE
"I wouldn't have missed Bologna for anything," said Ellen, one very warm
June morning, as Mrs. Sanford and Mr. and Mrs. Curtin and the young
people in their care found themselves on the train between Bologna and
Ravenna. "If every Italian city would have arcades over the sidewalks
like those in almost every street of Bologna, life would be better worth
living."
"So the arcades made the most impression on you," said Uncle Jim
smiling. "And what have you to say of Bologna, Mrs. Sanford?"
"Well I am glad to have found that it is really true that there were
learned women in Italy in the Middle Ages. I certainly cannot forget
that I have seen a statue to a woman professor of the fourteenth
century, who used to lecture in this university at Bologna. If there
were women professors, there must have been women students."
"Ellen thinks the little tombs on pillars outside the churches were the
strangest things she saw," cried Katie.
"Not stranger than the leaning towers," interposed Irma. "I suppose the
people of Bologna must be terribly afraid of earthquakes. I hated even
to drive near the leaning towers."
"I did not know we were to tell only strange things we had seen," said
Aunt Caroline. "I was most impressed by the Accademia. You others did
not stay long enough in the gallery. Besides Raphael's St. Cecilia,
there are very many pictures worth seeing; no one can really have a good
idea of Guido Reni without coming to Bologna."
"Well, I enjoyed the drive through the park, and our glimpse of
Carducci's house on the way back. It was all so restful after the noise
of the streets," said Uncle Jim.
"There are certainly many beautiful churches in Bologna, and more
homelike-looking palaces than I have seen anywhere else in Italy," said
Mrs. Sanford. "We might have enjoyed a longer stay there."
"I didn't think much of the shops," interposed Katie. "There was hardly
a thing I wanted to buy." Whereat the others smiled, as shopping was
Katie's favorite pastime.
"You'll find them worse in Ravenna, for that is not only a decaying, but
a decayed city, from all the accounts I've heard."
"I almost wish we were not going there," added Aunt Caroline. "They say
it's full of malaria."
"Oh, in one short day and night we can keep out of the way of germs."
It was noon when they reached Ravenna, tired enough after a warm
journey.
"Dante's tomb is only a step from here," said Marion to Irma, as they
finished _dejeuner_. "Bring your camera and we'll go out and take a shot
at it." Irma posed herself in front of the door of the domed building
containing the remains of the great poet, while Marion took a snapshot.
They stopped for a minute to read an inscription on an opposite house,
where Garibaldi had been entertained, and turning another corner, with
some little trouble, Marion found the simple dwelling where Lord Byron
had lived during his year or two in Ravenna.
"Now," began Marion, "if you can get Ellen to come, I move that we
three drive about the town. I am tired of too large a crowd, or perhaps
it is the weather. But this is one of the days when more than three
would spoil all the fun of looking at things."
As the suggestion pleased Ellen, the three started out in their carriage
ahead of the others. There were no trolley cars; few people were moving
around in the long, dusty streets; and many of the larger houses, or
palaces, were indeed deserted mansions, with no signs of life about
them.
"First to Theodoric's tomb," Marion had announced, as they started, and
as they drove along he talked entertainingly about old Ravenna,
especially in the last days of the Roman Empire, when the Emperor
Honorius held court there, believing the place to be safe against the
barbarians. Later, after the fall of Rome, Theodoric made this his city,
and tried to revive the Western Empire.
"Ravenna used to be a great seaport," said Marion, "with a harbor for a
large fleet, but the sea has been gradually receding until now it is
five miles away."
"These marshes and this little creek, I suppose, are all that the sea
has left Ravenna as a reminder of those days," said Irma.
"Yes," responded Marion, "but Theodoric's tomb is a thing we shall
remember better." And the girls agreed with him a few minutes later,
when they stood in the garden in front of the gray walls of the
impressive circular mausoleum.
"Oh, please stand still a moment," cried Marion, as they leaned over a
particularly beautiful rosebush; then a click came from the camera.
"I hate to have my picture taken when I am not expecting it," cried
Ellen.
"Don't worry! Theodoric's tomb will quite overshadow us," responded
Irma, in mock consolation.
After this the three drove from one church to another to see the
splendid mosaics that are Ravenna's chief treasures. Saints and emperors
and other great personages were there in all the glory of rich color,
and scriptural truths were taught in the symbols of the early Church.
"Although the figures are sometimes out of drawing and the designs
rather queer, it is just the same in these mosaics as in some of the old
frescoes; they were put on the church walls to teach truth to the mass
of people who could not read, and that is why I do not laugh at them."
[Illustration: SIENA. GENERAL VIEW, WITH CAMPANILE.
(_See page 227._)]
[Illustration: RAVENNA. THEODORIC'S TOMB.]
It seemed to Irma, when the whole party met at dinner that evening, that
Katie was displeased with somebody or something. Had Richard been
teasing her? For teasing was a cousinly privilege which he often
exercised. Was she annoyed that she had not been asked to join Marion's
particular group of three? For the present there seemed to be no answer.
The next day, after a warm journey of several hours, the whole party
stood on the steps of the railway station at Venice, waiting to see
their luggage put aboard the gondola. "How strange it seems to wait for
a boat instead of a cab to take one from the station to a hotel," and
Irma watched the water of the canal break with a slight wavelike motion
against the steps.
"Yes," responded Richard, who happened to be standing next her, "and
here we part for the present. I wish our rooms were in the same hotel,
but since that cannot be, Ellen and I, at least, will try to give you
all we can of our society."
"Please do," said Irma. "Ellen says you will be only a few doors away.
Good-by, good-by," she concluded, as Richard helped his mother and Ellen
and Katie into a gondola, where they sat rather stiffly with their bags
piled up behind them in the stern.
"Is it what you expected?" asked Aunt Caroline, as they glided in their
own gondola over the Grand Canal.
"Yes," sighed Irma; "it's more than I expected. I know that I shall be
perfectly happy in Venice."
But although Venice did not disappoint Irma, many things in this Queen
of the Adriatic were different from her expectations. She soon
discovered that it was possible to walk almost as far in Venice as in
any other large city, provided you did not object to threading your way
sometimes through narrow passages and over curving bridges.
"Has any one ever counted the bridges in Venice?" she asked one day.
"There must be hundreds of them," she said on the second day of her stay
there, when she and Marion had had a long walk that had ended in the
great Piazza in front of San Marco.
"Some one has counted them, of course, but I can only guess that there
are several hundred. But here we are at the heart of Venice. Isn't it
great?"
"Yes, this is just what I expected; it is almost too beautiful to be
real," and Irma stood in front of the great church with its gilded
domes, its mosaic pictures, and the four bronze horses from
Constantinople, over the main entrance, forming, as a whole, a picture
of which the eye could never weary.
"Let us not go inside to-day," said Marion.
"Oh, I would rather get a general impression of the piazza. That
beautiful building, white and yellow, must be the Doge's Palace. Ah,
yes, and there is the Lion of St. Mark's on his column. But who is that
odd-looking saint on the other column, standing on a crocodile?"
"St. Theodore, I believe. It's a wonder that he can continue to look so
pleasant, since he was quite cut out by St. Mark."
"I don't understand."
"Oh, St. Theodore was the patron saint of Venice. He was a Byzantine
saint, by the way, until some Venetian sea captains at Alexandria, where
St. Mark was buried, took offence at the way the relics of the saint
were treated by the sultan. They got the priests in charge to view the
matter as they did, and so the body was secretly delivered to their
care. On the voyage to Venice the saint saved the vessel from shipwreck,
and after their arrival St. Mark threw all others into the shade.
Nevertheless, St. Theodore smiles on, as if he had nothing to forgive."
"It is an interesting story; and is it perfectly true?" queried Irma.
"As true as any Richard would tell you," replied Marion.
"Oh, the pigeons, the pigeons!" cried Irma, turning about and walking
toward a spot where scores of pigeons were gathering around a girl who
was scattering handfuls of peas from a little basket. As Irma
approached, the girl looked up, and then----
"Why, Irma Derrington!" she cried, and she let her basket fall to the
ground as she rushed toward Irma.
[Illustration: "AS IRMA APPROACHED, THE GIRL LOOKED UP."
(_Page 296._)]
"It really is Muriel," said Irma, as she hastened toward her friend.
"Why haven't you written in all these weeks?" cried Muriel
reproachfully, after the first exchange of greetings.
"How could I without your address?"
"Didn't I give you our banker's?"
"Indeed you did not; but you might have written to me."
"Indeed I hadn't the slightest idea how to reach you. But no matter,
I hope you will be in Venice a week at least."
"Yes, indeed; and here is Marion Horton. You remember him."
At this moment Mademoiselle Potin came forward from the shade of one of
the arcades in front of the shops, where she had been watching Muriel,
and while Marion talked with her politely for a few minutes, Muriel,
speaking in an undertone, said, "How much brighter Marion Horton looks.
And is it possible that he goes about with you? He was generally so glum
and unsocial on the ship. He looks stronger now, too."
"Oh, Aunt Caroline says he has gained in every way, and lately we have
been travelling with a Mrs. Sanford and her son and daughter and----"
"Richard and Ellen? Oh, I know them quite well."
"Then you know how lively Richard is, and I think their being with us
has made Marion come out of his shell."
"When he's pleasant I should think he might be very good company. But
Mademoiselle Potin has been telling me about him, and I should think he
has had good reason to feel a little melancholy."
"There," thought Irma, "I won't let another day pass without finding
out from Aunt Caroline what it is that every one else knows about
Marion, that makes him seem an object of sympathy."
Meanwhile Marion had approached the girls.
"Of course you both have some story to account for the pigeons, and each
story is probably different."
"I have no story, except that they are regarded as almost sacred, and it
would be a great sin for any one to kill them."
"To be _caught_ killing them," interposed Marion, "but I have an idea
that many a pigeon pie in Venice is indebted to these same pigeons of
St. Mark's. But if you have nothing better, I will tell my story. It is
simply that some carrier pigeons brought good news to Enrico Dandolo,
the Crusader, when he was besieging Candia, and since that time these
pigeons and their descendants have been under the special protection of
the city."
"It is certainly great fun to feed them," said Muriel, "and if you come
here often, you'll see all kinds of people doing it,--old and young,
rich and poor. Why, I have seen a man sit for an hour by that pillar,
feeding them."
"As your basket quite emptied itself when you let it fall, let us go
over to one of those little tables outside the restaurant and have some
tea. We may, may we not, Mademoiselle Potin? And you will join us?"
During the pleasant half hour spent over the tea and cakes, pigeon after
pigeon approached them, looking, evidently, for stray crumbs. One was
even so bold as to hop up on the table, and would not be driven away
until Muriel had fed it.
"It is all delightful," said Irma, "only I must write to Tessie about
these pigeons, and I have so much to do. I am growing selfish. The air
of Venice makes me wish to do nothing but enjoy myself."
Later, when they went to the spot where the gondolas were waiting, they
found that Muriel's hotel was in a different direction from theirs.
"Please come to see me to-morrow," she cried, as she glided away. "You
know I cannot always do what I wish to."
"That means that perhaps her mother may not let her come to call on
you," commented Marion.
"Nonsense," cried Irma.
Katie was on the balcony of the hotel, as they made their landing. She
seemed surprised to see them. "I thought you were going to walk back,"
she said.
As she spoke, she put her hand to her collar. This attracted the
attention of both Irma and Marion, and Irma saw that Katie wore around
her tie the circlet with the dragon's head, and she could not help
noticing a strange expression on Marion's face as he too observed it.
That very evening, when she and Aunt Caroline were alone, Irma
remembered the question she had so often meant to ask about Marion.
"When we first left home," responded her aunt, "I could not have
answered you. What I said might have prejudiced you against Marion. But
things have changed, and even he could not object to my telling you now.
"It is not a complicated story. Marion's father died when he was a
little boy. He has no sisters, and his only brother is a few years older
than he. Herbert, I am afraid, has always been his mother's favorite,
because he is much livelier than Marion, and fonder of people. But
though most persons would call Herbert the more amiable, he has a
terrible temper, and all who have seen him under its influence know how
unreasonable he can be. One day, last winter, both boys were out in
Herbert's motor. While going very fast it seriously injured a child.
There were no witnesses to the accident, and the motor did not stop. But
a mile farther on, when they had begun to slow down, Marion signalled a
mounted policeman, told him there had been an accident, and obliged
Herbert to turn back. By this time the child's parents had come out, and
a crowd had collected. The boys were arrested, but soon had bail. At the
trial Marion refused to utter a word against his brother, for I will say
this for Herbert, he did admit that he was acting chauffeur. At last
Marion had to admit that Herbert was going much faster than the law
permits. Herbert's lawyer tried to show that the child's carelessness
caused the accident. But further testimony of Marion's changed this. As
Herbert was of age, the judge decided to make an example of him, and he
was sentenced to jail for a short period, and in addition had a fine to
pay. The child by this time was almost well, and many persons thought
the punishment excessive."
"I should think it was his brother who should be pitied, and not
Marion."
"Ah, many persons thought that Marion by a word might have put Herbert
in a better light. His mother took the view that it was Marion, and not
Herbert, who had disgraced the family. Some newspapers wrote articles
criticising him, and one published his photograph, labelled "An
unbrotherly brother." Now Marion himself had had a nervous breakdown
during the winter after an attack of measles. When he had given his
testimony at the trial he fainted and had to be carried from the room.
The strain had been too much. Your Uncle Jim and I at once invited him
to go abroad with us (for his father was an intimate friend and
classmate of your uncle's) when we heard that his mother would not even
speak to him. The strange thing was that while other relatives were so
bitter toward Marion, Herbert did not blame him. Yet in all these weeks
Marion had no letter from Herbert until we reached Siena. Even now I
think his mother has not written him."
"He has been very badly treated," said Irma. "I cannot see that Marion
did anything wrong."
"I will say this. Marion himself is partly to blame for being so cut off
from his relatives. He, too, has a temper. When he found that several
blamed him, he wrote a disrespectful letter to an uncle of his father's,
who is really very fond of him, saying that he hoped never to speak to
one of the family again, or something to that effect. Mr. Skerritt is
joint guardian of Marion with your uncle--and----"
Here Aunt Caroline paused. Then she added, "When Marion is twenty-five
he will have a large income. Even now he has more money to spend than
would be wise for most boys. But fortunately he is not a spendthrift."
"Thank you," said Irma, when her aunt had finished. "I understand Marion
better than I did. If he should speak to me about this, I suppose I can
say that I sympathize with him."
"Certainly, and I hope that he will be more inclined to talk now, since
Herbert has forgiven him."
"I don't see what he had to forgive."
"I am only speaking from the family's point of view."
The next morning, as Irma sat in her favorite corner of the little
balcony overhanging the Grand Canal, Marion approached her. On a small
round table that a waiter had moved out for her, she had set a
pasteboard box containing most of her souvenirs for the family at home.
There was nothing very valuable, though these pretty trifles had taken
all the money Irma had brought from home; cameo pins from Naples, one or
two mosaics from Rome, some strings of Roman pearls, an amber necklace
from Florence, a leather cover stamped in gilt for books, and a couple
of strings of Venetian beads, so dainty and fine that in her inmost
heart she rather begrudged giving them away.
"What is this?" asked Marion, holding up an envelope.
"That? Oh, that has the asphodel you gathered at Paestum, and in that
small box is the fossil shell you gave me the day you rescued my camera
from that foolish little girl."
"How long ago that seems," responded Marion. "We have seen so many
places since then that Paestum is ancient history, and yet it is little
more than a month away."
"I haven't forgotten," said Irma. "I thought you were very brave."
"Brave!" Marion colored. "I should think you'd call me a regular duffer
when you remember what a fool I made of myself getting on board the
_Ariadne_ at St. Michael's. I can tell you I felt awfully ashamed to
think that a girl had saved me from a tumble into the water. I haven't
forgotten what I owe you, though I haven't been able to get even yet."
"Oh, yes, you have. You saw that I wasn't any too brave the night I
thought we were going to sink."
"Ah, that was natural. For you know we had barely escaped collision with
a man of war. But what's this?"
While talking, Irma had opened a small package, and Marion, fumbling
with things on the table, had come across the piece of green marble from
Hadrian's villa.
For a moment Irma hesitated, then she plunged into the story of the way
she had missed the train that memorable afternoon.
"Aha!" exclaimed Marion, "and you were the girl who disapproved of my
buying that tile from the Sistine Chapel." Then he started as if to go
into the house. "Excuse me," he said. "I'll be back in a minute."
When Marion returned he had the octagonal tile in his hand. "Fair
exchange is always a good thing," he said, "and if you will take this, I
would like to have the Hadrian marble. It will be a good reminder to me
of something I can't explain just now."
"Yes, you may exchange," said Irma, hesitatingly. For in her inmost
heart she preferred her own marble. Yet, this was almost the first favor
Marion had ever asked of her.
"Thank you," said Marion. "I was altogether too ugly about that tile,
but to tell you the truth I have had so much nagging this year, before I
left home, that I've been too ready to defend myself."
"I know," responded Irma.
Marion looked up suddenly, as if he wondered how much she knew. But Irma
said nothing.
Not far from the hotel some gondolas were tied to the poles that marked
their station. Marion leaned forward and signalled, and the nearest
gondolier glided up.
"Put these trinkets away. I will leave the box in the office," said
Marion, "and we can go out for an hour."
Irma accepted the invitation gladly enough, and the two were on the
point of starting when Richard and Ellen appeared. Marion invited them
also, and soon the four young people were gliding past S. Maria della
Salute up toward the railway station.
"There," said Richard, as they passed one beautiful palace after
another. "If this were not Marion's party, I could tell you all kinds of
wonderful stories as we go along. But as it is, I must content myself
with saying, 'This is the Palace where Robert Browning spent so much
time, and where he finally died. There, on that corner, lives Don
Carlos. He and the parrot are not visible to-day, but you can almost
look into the kitchen windows and see the most wonderful collection of
copper kettles. When Lord Byron lived in that gray-fronted edifice, he
was in the habit of taking a daily swim in the waters of the Grand
Canal. I would like to tell you about the Dandolos and Foscari, and all
the others, including the Falieri. Some of them were beheaded; some had
their eyes put out, and----"
"Don't, Richard," cried Ellen. "The Venetians were almost as
bloodthirsty as the Florentines and Romans, and I wonder at their cruel
deeds when I look about at all the beauty here."
"Oh, there are also highly romantic stories, if I only had time to tell
them, not bloodthirsty, but full of sentiment," continued Richard, in
the tone that always meant he was only half in earnest. "The Merchant of
Venice, for instance, and here we are at the Rialto, which of course
makes you think of Shylock, though it was the section back there, and
not the bridge, that Shakespeare had in mind."
"I walked through the Merceria the other day," said Ellen. "You know
it's the street that runs from this bridge to the clock tower opposite
St. Mark's."
"Did you find many bargains?" asked Marion suddenly.
"A few, though we were not out to shop. But it was great fun to see the
real Venetians hurrying along almost like Americans."
At this moment one of the little steamboats that constantly ply up and
down the Grand Canal seemed to be bearing down upon them. Irma gave a
little scream, but already the gondolier had pushed his craft away so
adroitly that they barely felt the swash.
[Illustration: VENICE. THE GRAND CANAL.]
[Illustration: VENICE. A GONDOLIER.]
Once or twice they pulled up at some landing to have a better view of
an old building or Campo, and always an aged man arose from some corner,
boathook in hand, to help them ashore, waiting until their return to
receive the small fee that custom has decreed.
At last, as they glided homeward, and came in sight of their hotel, Irma
discerned Katie standing on the balcony.
"Irma," said Marion, in an undertone, for evidently he, too, had seen
Katie, "has Katie said anything to you about Nap lately?"
"No, not for some time."
"Well, I hoped she would say you could keep Nap."
"Aha, Marion," cried Richard, "I believe I understand why you have spent
so much time with Katie lately, escorting her around to places I
wouldn't have taken the trouble to go. I see why you did it."
"Why?" asked Ellen; "why should he need a special reason?"
"Perhaps he didn't need it. But I believe he has set out to make Katie
give up Nap to Irma, but," and he turned toward Marion with a flourish
of his hat, "I'll bet you almost anything that you don't succeed. Katie
is my cousin, and I know."
As they landed at the steps of the hotel, Katie greeted them
pleasantly.
"The rest of us have had a splendid afternoon. We've been shopping."
"Of course," interposed Richard.
"Oh, this time we went to such interesting palaces, full of wonderful
old furniture and pictures, collectors' places; and your aunt, Irma, has
bought any amount of lovely things. And then, over across the way, we
saw them making mosaics, and I have bought some beautiful long slender
iridescent glass vases."
"You can buy the same in New York," murmured Richard, "and we'll have
all the trouble of carrying these vases home. Probably they'll be put in
a basket for _me_ to carry."
Then in a sudden spirit of mischief: "Katie," cried Richard, "did Marion
give you that arrangement for your scarf? I don't know whether to call
it a pin or a ring."
"Nobody gave it to me," she replied, in a tone of annoyance.
"Then _where_ did you get it?" It was Marion who spoke sharply.
Katie made no answer.
"Did you advertise it?" asked Marion.
Even to Katie this question seemed as puzzling as to the others.
"I don't know what you mean," she replied. "I bought it at Rome."
"Oh," said Marion, and it was quite evident that he did not believe her.
"Well," said Katie, "if you must know, I bought it at the Rag Fair, and
very cheap it was. Every one tells me that I have a great bargain, for
the carving on the stone is very fine, and I wouldn't part with it for
anything."
Marion made no comment after Katie's speech, and instantly Irma
understood the whole thing. This was the "something else" that Marion
had lost with the two hundred liri in his purse. It had probably been
stolen by some one at the fair. Certainly it was easy now to account for
Katie's bargain.