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BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 253

have had equal cause for dislike, as the princess imagined she had, to hate the lovely stranger. But who knows whether under the inspiration of a great love or an equally intense hate, the Venice of to-day may not have tragic inspiration enough for a fatal intrigue ?

" Could you have believed anything on this earth could be so absolutely beautiful ? " asked Jenny, as the gon- doliers paused by the bridge of the Rialto to permit their passengers to contemplate the Fondaco dei Turchi, upon which the moonlight was falling in silvery splendor, whitening the marble columns of its open logia, and cast- ing a broad, steady reflection upon its antique facade. What a history there was there to dwell upon ! Walter had looked it up, and was enabled, much to his own satis- faction, to mention its salient points.

" This is, of course, the old palace restored/' he said. " It repeats the original as nearly as possible. It was built in the thirteenth century by the family of the Palmien ofPesaro. In 1331 it was bought by the Republic and pre- sented to the Marquises of Este, Lords of Briare, who gave entertainments here, at which Ariosto and Tasso were guests. The Fondaco dei Todeschi, and it is now simply a museum, nothing more nor less, the Museum of Venice."

" But many a noble palace along the Grand Canal has come to a worse destiny? " suggested Philip.

" Oh, yes, and the fact that there are lodging-houses and other show places, in which relics of their glories and miscellaneous bric-a-brac are for sale in the marble halls, make Venice to my mind all the more pathetic," Walter replied, with an accent of sorrow in his voice that for a minute or two quite troubled his wife.

" What's the matter, Walter ? " she asked.

" Oh, nothing, my dear ; I was only trying to get into tune with Forsyth, who, of course, is looking at the poetic, side of things, and here the poetic is the pathetic,"