But not daring to ask questions, he passed on, fearing to be seen from a window.
Finally he gave it up.

Chiaja had many streets and he was wandering aimlessly, since the concierge of the hotel had not been able to give him any precise directions.

The _signora_ Talberg was evidently bent on outwitting all his finesse, trying to keep from him the address of her friends.
The following morning the captain took up his usual watch in the promenade near the white Virgil.

It was all in vain.

After ten o'clock he again wandered into the Aquarium, animated by a vague hope.
"Perhaps she may come to-day...." With the superstition of the enamored and all those who wait, he kept hunting certain places preferred by the widow, believing that in this way he would attract her from her distant preoccupation, obliging her to come to him.
The tanks of the molluscas had always been especially interesting to her.