"
"Youth is the season of indiscretion, as ye know, Signori," returned the
father, breathing more freely--"and as none become old that have not
been young, I have little need to awaken your recollection of its
weaknesses. I trust my son is incapable of designing aught against the
Republic?"
"Of that he is not suspected." A slight expression of irony crossed the
features of the old senator as he spoke. "But he is represented as
aiming too freely at the person and wealth of your ward; and that she
who is the especial care of St. Mark is not to be solicited without the
consent of the Senate, is an usage well known to one of its most
ancient and most honorable members."
"Such is the law, and none coming of me shall show it disrespect. I have
preferred my claims to that connexion openly, but with diffidence; and I
await the decision of the state in respectful confidence."
His associates bowed in courteous acknowledgment of the justice of what
he said, and of the loyalty of his conduct, but it was in the manner of
men too long accustomed to duplicity to be easily duped.
"None doubt it, worthy Signor Gradenigo, for thy faith to the state is
ever quoted as a model for the young, and as a subject for the
approbation of the more experienced. Hast thou any communications to
make on the interest of the young heiress, thyself?"
"I am pained to say that the deep obligation conferred by Don Camillo
Monforte, seems to have wrought upon her youthful imagination, and I
apprehend that, in disposing of my ward, the state will have to contend
with the caprice of a female mind.
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