While the more favored ones moved all about the city, clad in rich silks and velvets, the patrician wives wore a long black silk _cappa_; and even if they possessed beauty, nothing in their every-day dress added to its effect. They were guarded with almost Oriental jealousy. Why not? If a man cannot believe in himself, cannot trust himself, how can he trust another? The remark of the councillor when talking of the pattens that the ladies wore--sometimes two feet in height, so that to move at all they must lean on two attendants--gives the key to the whole theory of suspicion and lack of confidence. The French ambassador spoke of the pattens as most incommodious. The Doge admitted that shoes would be more comfortable and convenient; but the councillor, shaking his head with a cynical expression, remarked, "Yes, far, far too convenient." God help the women who live in such an atmosphere! The matrons, however, were far more fortunate than the maidens, whose dress was symbolical of retired life and domestic education. The home was all their world, and they knew nothing of any recreation outside the {221} family circle. Even down to the last century it was not allowable to introduce gentlemen to the unmarried daughters of Venetian nobles. Their dresses were most simple, of plain white or black, and when they went to church, they wore the _fazzuolo_, a long white veil. On other occasions this was exchanged for a silken mantle, very thin and gauzy, through which they could see, but not be seen. The marriage day was the day that brought freedom. For the first time the maiden was introduced to society, and it was intended that on that day she should first see the bridegroom. We more than suspect that many of the faithful and trusted nurses permitted the _fazzuolo_ to be thrown aside for a moment when they well knew that the lover was watching in concealment for a glimpse of the face of his future wife; and sometimes these nurses so sympathized with the lover as to grant him meetings, all too brief, by the church door or in some crooked _calle_. With the innate love for dress and gayety entirely ungratified, without a jewel or ornament, save a simple cross or a rose from the garden, why should the Venetian maiden not dwell with longing anticipation on the thought of her wedding day, and if ever she talked with other girls, of what else could they speak? But, after all, when she saw the life of her mother and other matrons, what great pleasure did marriage offer her? Freedom in a sense,--servants, a gondola, ropes of real pearls, the formal court balls, and other ceremonies, all observed under the strictest rules of etiquette. To us there does not seem to be much brightness in the life of noble Venetian women, married or single.