Gelsomina had long been familiar with grief, but until this moment she had never felt the deep humiliation of shame. Tears started from her eyes, and she sank back into a seat, in utter inability to stand. "I would not distress thee out of bearing," added the artful daughter of the wine-seller. "But that we are both in the closet of the gayest cavalier of Venice, is beyond dispute." "I have told thee that pity for another brought me hither." "Pity for Don Camillo." "For a noble lady--a young, a virtuous, and a beautiful wife--a daughter of the Tiepolo--of the Tiepolo, Annina!" "Why should a lady of the Tiepolo employ a girl of the public prisons!" "Why!--because there has been injustice by those up above. There has been a tumult among the fishermen--and the lady and her governess were liberated by the rioters--and his Highness spoke to them in the great court--and the Dalmatians were on the quay--and the prison was a refuge for ladies of their quality, in a moment of so great terror--and the Holy Church itself has blessed their love--" Gelsomina could utter no more, but breathless with the wish to vindicate herself, and wounded to the soul by the strange embarrassment of her situation, she sobbed aloud. Incoherent as had been her language, she had said enough to remove every doubt from the mind of Annina. Privy to the secret marriage, to the rising of the fishermen, and to the departure of the ladies from the convent on a distant island, where they had been carried on quitting their own palace, the preceding night, and whither she had been compelled to conduct Don Camillo, who had ascertained the departure of those he sought without discovering their destination, the daughter of the wine-seller readily comprehended, not only the errand of her cousin, but the precise situation of the fugitives. "And thou believest this fiction, Gelsomina?" she said, affecting pity for her cousin's credulity. "The characters of thy pretended daughter of Tiepolo and her governess are no secrets to those who frequent the piazza of San Marco." "Hadst thou seen the beauty and innocence of the lady, Annina, thou would'st not say this!" "Blessed San Teodoro! What is more beautiful than vice! 'Tis the cheapest artifice of the devil to deceive frail sinners. This thou hast heard of thy confessor, Gelsomina, or he is of much lighter discourse than mine." "But why should a woman of this life enter the prisons?"