142 THE LOVERS. 



grace, with which she wore it. The converse of Marco and 

 his sweet Biauca was so low as to be nearly overpowered even 

 by the gentle murmur of the sea, as it broke upon the adjacent 

 shore, and the slight stirring of the surrounding foliage ; while, 

 at intervals, their voices were wholly drowned by the shouts 

 of revelry which rose from the illumined city. Since, however, 

 the purport of their discourse may be readily surmised, it is 

 not worth our rescue from the orange-scented air to which it 

 was committed, and the words of Marco were all the less 

 deserving record, because, though soft and gentle as the waves 

 upon that summer night, they partook somewhat also of that 

 beguiling smoothness by which many a fair and fragile barque 

 had been lured to ruin in the 2;ulf below. Not that Marco 



t_ 



was one of vour cold calculating deceivers : but he was a 



i/ 



creature almost as dangerous : lie was not recklessly false- 

 hearted, but lie was infirm of purpose the sport of impulses 

 which had been of late vacillating between his love for Bianca 

 certainly the most ardent of his present feelings and his 

 love of family consequence, perhaps of all his characteristics 

 the least unsteady. 



Heard clearly above the mingled sounds rising from the 

 city, the clock of the Anuuuciata struck nine. It was a signal 

 for the pair to separate Marco to join a party of gay com- 

 panions at the festival Biauca to return to the abode of her 

 father, an old vine-dresser, who had lived from his youth 

 upwards on the estate and in the service of the Marchese 



