A Venetian June

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was so absorbed in the mere joy of this gliding, rhythmic motion, that she scarcely paid due deference to the wonders of the Piazzetta, past which they fared so swiftly. Yes; there were the famous pillars of Saint and Lion, and there, beyond the Ducal Palace, was a passing glimpse of San Marco. It was as it should be, this delightful verification of travellers' tales; she could afford to hold all that in reserve. But just to-day, just at this mo

e of disapproval beneath which the stately old pile blushed rosy red. At least it was at that moment that she first observed the pink

hat flickered over into the crow's-feet which were such an important feature of his equipment

al interest, the swaying motion of the supple, picturesque figure at the oar. She was not sure that she altogether approved of the broad white straw hat, with fluttering ends of blue r

m yonder island,-had continued his unswerving gaze straight over the head of the Signorina. At the sound of his name his bearing changed. Lifting his hat, he took a step forward, and, still plying the oar with his right hand, h

on upon him? Where, he wondered, half-resentfully, was the dim oppression, the subtle pain he had heretofore associated with these tranquil water spaces? What witch-work were those girls playing with the traditions of twenty-five years? He glanced from one to the other of their unconscious faces, each absorbed a

y cognomen of Pauline? She was sure to be haughty and unapproachable. No wonder that she puckered up her face in hostile protest as often as he offered her a perfunctory salutation. He was becoming fairly afraid of the little month-old personage, when one day, he hit upon the reassuring device of turning Pauline, with all its conservative dignity, into Polly. If the testimony of a gentle

had never in all these years begrudged him a smile. Yet such reminiscences were not wholly foreign to his thoughts, and they doubtless lent

nexceptionable little nieces. But when his Polly had remained for seven years without a rival in his affections, a fourth small damsel had presented herself, and had been regarded by her parents as the logical candidate for her mother's name. From that time forth the Colonel was

tep which rendered him independent of daughterly ministrations, though such a proceeding ran counter to one of the Colonel's most perverse and therefore most valued theories. That a woman should take a second husband had long seemed to him both natu

" Pauline remarked, as Vittorio

eplied. "He never

does he

row me twenty-five years ago, and I've no doubt his

he train the other day stared us out of countenance and we asked you t

xplained. "It's lucky for you, May, that I'm getting on in life. I don't

oubtfully, tilting her golden head at a critical angle. "I do

uline, with a humorous appreci

, when she smiled, her face, soft and pure, but not brilliant in colouring, had somehow the look of a brook rippling over brown pebbles in a shady place, where the sunshine comes in threads and hints, rather than in an obliterating flood

the gondola. As the young girl looked past her companions, across the silvery spaces of the lagoon, her eyes grew dre

with the directness which characterised her, she said: "I was wo

hat kind o

now Signor Firenzo told me my voice was

ge of voices than of souls," Pauline su

you see one coming over the lagoon you had better turn round and look at the Lion of St. Ma

fixed her eyes upon the c

ns had such long, strai

common," Uncle Dan chuckled, much reassured by

, "that a lion that had wings and a taste for l