Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1882-09-07

Small, and OF course 1 imagined tnat
she must be beautiful.
opened the letter by the light Of
my lantern and found the following
words, " written in choice Italian, /" and
in very neat and pretty hand:
CARO- Mol cannot come tonight;
viii meet you at the same hour to
morrow. Come close up to the win
dow nearest the water; I can descend
easily from thence, and there is not so
much chance Of being seen. Provide
cloaks, that our figures may be COM
pletely disguised. Tillthen, adieu.
/" ANNA"
What was I to make Of thisp I had
no intimate friends in Venice, and
certainly had no acquaintance to adj
dress me like this / asked my gon-
dolier if he knew the house, but he did
not.
told him to go back the same way,
in order that ] might see the figure
again, if it happened to be there; but
the house seemed quite deserted; and
all / noticed was a man in gondola,
which passed close to mine. He at
tracted my attention by the peculiar
hat he wore.
determined at first to take no no
tice of the letter; but the love Of an
adventure, such as this promised to be,
was too strong for me; and, besides,
vanity whispered, "Who knows, some
one may have fallen in love with you
unawaresr'
Moreover, / was anxious to see if
the lady was really pretty whether
she would turn out a real Jessica; so
made up my mind to be at the place at
the appointed time.
All the next day was in fever of
excitement; longed for the evening,
and thought that the sun would never
set. AS soon as it began to get dark
stepped into the gondola, and told nv
man to go the same way as last night.
As we neared the place, I felt little
nervous, and even thought once or
twice of turning back or going in
another direction, and that | might
only fall into some scrape or trap if I
persevered in my intention but it
was too late before / could come to any
decision-we had already entered the
silent street.
As / had been directed in the letter.
| had provided cloaks, and had en-
veloped myself in one, completely dis
guising my person with the help of a
slouched wide-awake kind of hat
turned down over my eyes. I felt
very much like an operatic brigand
about to do some deed of darkness.
There were more people about than
there had been the night before, SO /
thought it was prudent to paddle
about, not to excite attention, and to
wait till the coast was pretty clear
before taking my boat under the
balcony.
At last my gondola was about the
only one near, so I seized the oppor-
tunity, and told the gondolier to steer
it to the appointed window. There,
sure enough, was the figure, and as
soon as | was close enough, and had
made fast our boat the best way was
able, she handed me some packages.
which I thought at the time rather
heavy, and followed herself Immediate
ly afterward, getting lightly over the
low balustrade Of the window, and
alighting somewhat Unexpectedly, at
least to me, into my arms, which were
extended for her assistance in getting
down.
As soon as she was in the gondola
she whispered to me to be off at once,
before being discovered.
My man came to ask what part Of
the city we would go. Fortunately,
before could speak, the lady men
toned some place, which, though / had
never heard of it before, he seemed to
know. She then said to me, some
what in surprise:
Why, you have changed your gon-
dolier since the last time r
could do nothing but assent to
this, and then held my finger to my
mouth to tell her that we had better
not talk. She seemed to agree with
me; and for greater secrecy I drew the
curtains of the gondola.
As 7 was doing so, and as we were
turning the corner Of the canal, no
ticed that the gondolier I had seen the
night before with man in a peculiar
hat passed close to us.
had very good reason not to wish
to talk, for ] knew perfectly well that
if spoke out loud I should be be-
trayed directly by my bad pronunci-
alton and bad Italian.
But as we glided along, and Amina
nestled closer to me, could not help
thinking that I was playing the part
Of real villain in not discovering my
self. Her demeanor and lady-like
bearing convinced me entirely that she
was not what took her to be; and +
felt sure that I was the cause Of some
curious mistake, and was passing for
somebody else. ! made up my mind