"I love much your Shakespeare." Whereupon Paul recognized her admission of the correctness of his conjecture; and so, with the precious vision they had borrowed, they went about tourist-wise to familiar churches and palaces, and everything they saw was lit with exceeding loveliness.

And they saw the great pictures of the world, and Paul, with his expert knowledge, pointed out beauties she had not dreamed of hitherto, and told her tales of the painters and discoursed picturesquely on Venetian history, and she marvelled at his insight and learning and thought him the most wonderful man that had ever dropped, ready-made, from heaven.

And he, in the flush of his new love, was thrilled by her touch and the low tones of her voice when she plucked him by the sleeve and murmured: "Ah, Paul, regardez-moi ca.

It is so beautiful one wants to weep with joy." They spoke now half in French, half in English, and she no longer protested against his murderous accent, which, however, he strove to improve.

Love must have lent its precious hearing too, for she vowed she loved to hear him speak her language.
In the great Council Chamber of the Ducal Palace they looked at the seventy-six portraits of the illustrious succession of Doges--with the one tragic vacant space, the missing portrait of Marino Faliero, the Rienzi of Venice, the man before his time.
"It seizes one's heart, doesn't it ?" said the Princess, with her impulsive touch on his sleeve.