"A month; Annina left it at her last visit, for she was hurried to cross to the Lido. But why these questions? You do not like my cousin, who is giddy, and given to idle conversation, but who, I think, must have a good heart. Thou heard'st the manner in which she spoke of the wretched bravo, Jacopo, and of this late murder?" "I did." "Thou could'st not have shown more horror at the monster's crime thyself, Carlo. Nay, Annina is thoughtless, and she might be less worldly; but she hath, like all of us, a holy aversion to sin. Shall I lead thee to the cell?" "Go on." "Thy honest nature, Carlo, revolts at the cold villany of the assassin. I have heard much of his murders, and of the manner in which those up above bear with him. They say, in common, that his art surpasseth theirs, and that the officers wait for proof, that they may not do injustice." "Is the Senate so tender, think you?" asked the Bravo, huskily, but motioning for his companion to proceed. The girl looked sad, like one who felt the force of this question; and she turned away to open a private door, whence she brought forth a little box. "This is the key, Carlo," she said, showing him one of a massive bunch, "and I am now the sole warder. This much, at least, we have effected; the day may still come when we shall do more." The Bravo endeavored to smile, as if he appreciated her kindness; but he only succeeded in making her understand his desire to go on. The eye of the gentle-hearted girl lost its gleam of hope in an expression of sorrow, and she obeyed. CHAPTER XIX. "But let us to the roof, And, when thou hast surveyed the sea, the land, Visit the narrow cells that cluster there, As in a place of tombs." ST. MARK'S PLACE. We shall not attempt to thread the vaulted galleries, the gloomy corridors, and all the apartments, through which the keeper's daughter led her companion. Those who have ever entered an extensive prison, will require no description to revive the feeling of pain which it excited, by barred windows, creaking hinges, grating bolts, and all those other signs, which are alike the means and evidence of incarceration. The building, unhappily like most other edifices intended to repress the vices of society, was vast, strong, and intricate within, although, as has been already intimated, of a chaste and simple beauty externally, that might seem to have been adopted in mockery of its destination. Gelsomina entered a low, narrow, and glazed gallery, when she stopped. "Thou soughtest me, as wont, beneath the water-gate, Carlo," she asked, "at the usual hour?" "I should not have entered the prison had I found thee there, for thou knowest I would be little seen. But I bethought me of thy mother, and crossed the canal." "Thou wast wrong. My mother rests much as she has done for many months--thou must have seen that we are not taking the usual route to the cell?"