"The water was never more quiet. But thou hearest those strains of the hautboys?"
"Are they so rare on the canals, that they drive thee from the balcony?"
"There are cavaliers beneath the windows of the Mentoni palace; doubtless they compliment our friend Olivia."
"Even that gallantry is common. Thou knowest that Olivia is shortly to be united to her kinsman, and he takes the usual means to show his admiration."
"Dost thou not find this public announcement of a passion painful? Were I to be wooed, I could wish it might only be to my own ear."
"That is an unhappy sentiment for one whose hand is in the gift of the Senate! I fear that a maiden of thy rank must be content to hear her beauty extolled and her merits sung, if not exaggerated, even by hirelings beneath a balcony."
"I would that they were done!" exclaimed Violetta, stopping her ears. "None know the excellence of our friend better than I; but this open exposure of thoughts that ought to be so private, must wound her."
"Thou mayest go again into the balcony; the music ceases."
"There are gondoliers singing near the Rialto—these are sounds I love! Sweet in themselves, they do no violence to our sacred feelings. Art thou for the water to-night, my Florinda?"
"Whither would'st thou?"