Edith hurried along beside Rafael, and Mrs. Sprague followed slowly into the courtyard of the palace, up the Giant's Staircase and through great rooms, until they came out upon a balcony overlooking the square which they had just left.
"Is it not lovely?" Rafael asked simply.
Without answering, Edith balanced her camera upon the railing of the balcony and snapped a picture of the two columns in the Piazzetta, near a landing place of the Grand Canal.
"Everyone in the United States knows that picture," she said, "and when they see that I have taken it, they will know that I was really here once."
"Is it that you will show it to everyone in the United States?" asked Rafael with interest.
Edith looked at him quickly, thinking that he was laughing at her; but as she saw that he was serious she answered, "Oh dear! no; only to my friends, who were glad to have me come to see Italy, so that I can tell them about it."
"Is that why so many people come to my country," he asked,—"to tell others about it?"
Edith laughed. "I came to buy a string of Venetian beads," she answered roguishly.
But the boy would not laugh in answer. "It may be that you will take away with you a more precious necklace than your glass one, if you will let me show you our wonderful pictures and buildings," he said.
It was a pretty speech, and the girl answered him with another. "You mean a necklace of memory pictures," she said. "Yes, I have begun to string such a necklace. My memory of St. Mark's Cathedral is one of the beads, and this splendid square is another. Then there is a bead for the moonlight on the canals, and one for the fluttering pigeons at their midday meal.".