Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"_Sicuro_, signor," and Shylock agreed to have the precious object
boxed with all possible care and despatch, and delivered at the hotel
that afternoon.
"Servo suo!" said Jessica, as they stood at the door.
"Bon di, Patron!" responded Larry in Venetian fashion; then as the
door closed behind them he said to John Manning, "Seems to me you were
in a hurry! You could have had that glass for half the money."
"Perhaps I could," was Manning's quiet reply, "but I was eager to get
it back at once."
"Get it back? Why, it wasn't stolen from _you_, was it? I never did
suppose _he_ came by it honestly."
"It was not stolen from me personally. But it belonged to my family.
It was made for Giovanni Manin, who fled from Venice to Amsterdam
three hundred odd years ago. His grandson and namesake left Amsterdam
for New Amsterdam half a century later. And when the English changed
New Amsterdam into New York, Jan Mannin became John Manning--and I am
his direct descendant, and the first of my blood to return to Venice
to get the goblet Giovanni Manin ordered and left behind."
"Well, I'm damned!" said Larry, pensively.
"And now," continued John Manning as they took their seats in the
gondola, "tell the man to go to the church where the picture of Mary
Magdalen is. I want a good look at that woman!"
* * * * *
In the evening, as John Manning sat in a little _caffe_ under the
arcades of the Piazza San Marco, sipping a tiny cup of black coffee,
Larry entered with a rush of righteous indignation.
"What's the matter, Larry?" was John Manning's calm query.
"There's the devil to pay at home. South Carolina has fired on the
flag at Sumter."
* * * * *
Three weeks later Colonel Manning was assigned to duty in the Army of
the Potomac.
II.
IN THE NEW WORLD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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