"Signore, those days of glory and greatness exist no longer. Should it be thought expedient to overlook the natural claims of my son, and to bestow my ward to the advantage of the Republic, the most that can be expected through her means, is a favorable concession in some future treaty, or a new prop to some of the many decaying interests of the city. In this particular, she maybe rendered of as much, or even more use, than the oldest and wisest of our body. But that her will may be free and the child may have no obstacles to her happiness, it will be necessary to make a speedy determination of the claim preferred by Don Camillo. Can we do better than to recommend a compromise, that he may return without delay to his own Calabria?"
"The concern is weighty, and it demands deliberation."
"He complains of our tardiness already, and not without show of reason. It is five years since the claim was first preferred."
"Signor Gradenigo, it is for the vigorous and healthful to display their activity—the aged and the tottering must move with caution. Were we in Venice to betray precipitation in so weighty a concern, without seeing an immediate interest in the judgment, we should trifle with a gale of fortune that every sirocco will not blow into the canals. We must have terms with the lord of Sant' Agata, or we greatly slight our own advantage."
"I hinted of the matter to your excellencies, as a consideration for your wisdom; methinks it will be something gained to remove one so dangerous from the recollection and from before the eyes of a love-sick maiden."
"Is the damsel so amorous?"
"She is of Italy, Signore, and our sun bestows warm fancies and fervent minds."
"Let her to the confessional and her prayers! The godly prior of St. Mark will discipline her imagination till she shall conceit the Neapolitan a Moor and an infidel. Just San Teodoro, forgive me! But thou canst remember the time, my friends, when the penance of the church was not without service on thine own fickle tastes and truant practices."
"The Signore Gradenigo was a gallant in his time," observed the third, "as all well know who travelled in his company. Thou wert much spoken of at Versailles and at Vienna; nay, thou canst not deny thy vogue to one who, if he hath no other merit, hath a memory."
"I protest against these false recollections," rejoined the accused, a withered smile lighting his faded countenance; "we have been young, Signori, but among us all, I never knew a Venetian of more general fashion and of better report, especially with the dames of France, than he who has just spoken."