Page:By order of the Czar.djvu/260



248 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

the robed statue of Victor Emanuel, waiting the coming of the King and Queen to havt ^s fair proportions dis- closed to the people.

" Supper ! " said Philip, when Walter invited him to that necessary repast. " I feel as if it were a sacrilege to be hungry."

" Not at all," said Walter. " It would be if I had not taken care to order a repast ; but just as nothing makes one so hungry as a good play or the opera, nothing is more exhausting than the first impressions of Venice. I remember when first I came to Venice, that trip down the canal made me as hungry as my first experience of Don Giovanni."

Jenny and Dolly appeared at supper with bright eyes and in bright costumes. Dolly was not so radiant as Jenny. The truth is, Dolly was not quite happy. Alone during those last touches of the toilette, which Dolly and Jenny often performed together, Dolly had said to her sister, " I really do not quite know whether Philip does not see a little too much in nature and art outside me, I mean, of course, to be quite happy with me ; I don't want to have nature and art always in competition with fashion and me."

" My dear," said Jenny, kissing her, " you are in your- self the highest embodiment of nature and art."

" Not at all ; if we were both put up to auction, I shouldn't have a chance in competition with one of those old palaces or with a moonlight night on the Grand Canal."

" You are a queer girl," Jenny replied, " he will get tired of Venice in a week. Venice is always the same ; a beauti- ful woman is always different."

" Now, girls," said Walter, putting his head inside the door, " supper, and shall I keep Beppo for a floating siesta afterward ? "