Page:By order of the Czar.djvu/262



250 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

and when next we have to fight they will fight with us on shore and at sea."

" Yes," said Bettina.

While Beppo was romancing about what Italy would be like after the next great war, the English party came out with pretty cloaks and gauzy wraps upon their arms, the men with cigars in their mouths. Beppo, hat in hand, was ashore in one moment to be handing his passengers into the gondola the next, and helping Walter to arrange ihe cushions so that Dolly and Jenny should be at their most perfect ease, with Walter and Philip at their feet, the moon dancing away down in the sea beneath them, and sailing majestically above them with two attendant stars.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE RED GONDOLA.

SOON after eleven they were once more afloat, the moon higher and brighter, the water still and silent, the great ocean steamer lying calm and solid at anchor, the opposite island, with the Church of the Maggiore, sleeping in the moonlight ; a cluster of coasting craft lying in the shadow of St. Maria della Salute ; and, as they steered by the steps of St. Mark's, the Campanile, the Moorish towers, and the flagstaff holding communion with the silvery stars.

Along the water line from the quay, past the Bridge of Sighs, and by the Palace were a row of leafless trees, mechanical contrivances of lamps, which were to be lighted before the week was over. Even these curious additions, artificialities that were singularly out of place, were in- offensive things in the moonlight, which softened their harsh outlines and made them almost picturesque.

Perhaps it was the Capri that had loosened Philip's tongue. For a time he was a very chatty companion.