196 PARENTAL POLICY. 



in a few days was to be given, to the beautiful and haughty 

 Beatrice, a daughter of no meaner house than that of Doria. 

 With this purposed alliance, long known to all Genoa, Bianca 

 was of course acquainted. It was a finale to her misplaced 

 affection only such as might always, sooner or later, have been 

 looked for, and neither resentment nor jealousy embittered the 

 dispensation under which she meekly bowed, as the just and 

 inevitable penalty of her having dared to love before she knew 

 the meaning of either love or rank. But here was the misery, 

 if nothing worse, to live, as heretofore, within the very shadow 

 of the house, which was to be the future residence of Marco 

 and his bride, who were to abide at the Palazzo of the former's 

 father. How often had Bianca wished that she could flee to 

 some distant land, where, as she fondly but deceptively be- 

 lieved, that if she could never quite forget him, she might 

 sometimes think of him without offence. 



Before the arrival of the present Midsummer, this, her 

 desire, seemed likely of fulfilment. Whether the old Marquis 

 had suspected something of the attachment, commenced almost 

 in childhood, between his son and Bianca, and thought that 

 the latter would now, therefore, be better at a distance, or, 

 whether it were mere accident that favoured her wish ; but so 

 it was, that the Marquis having recently (as was a common 

 custom with the Genoese nobility) purchased an estate in the 

 more fruitful territory of Naples, proposed to the old vine- 

 dresser that he should take the office of its superintendency. 

 The faithful servant, who would not for promotion have left 

 his " own people," but to whom his master's will was law, 

 urged moreover by his daughter, agreed to the proposal, and 

 they were to sail together for their new southern home in a 

 galley now at anchor in the bay. 



Old Jacopo was sad, as the remembrances, both pleasant and 

 painful, of sixty years, all passed under that humble roof, came 

 back, like a mingled company of departed spirits, and seemed 

 to take possession of every corner every bit of furniture in 



