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?”

“I have; but as we are not accustomed to meet in thy father’s rooms, on this errand, I thought this the necessary direction.”

“Hast thou much knowledge of the palace and the prison, Carlo?”

“More than I could wish, good Gelsomina; but why am I thus questioned, at a moment when I would be otherwise employed?”

The timid and conscious girl did not answer.  Her cheek was never bright, for, like a flower reared in the shade, it had the delicate hue of her secluded life; but at this question it became pale.  Accustomed to the ingenuous habits of the sensitive being at his side, the Bravo studied her speaking features intently.  He moved swiftly to a window, and looking out, his eye fell upon a narrow and gloomy canal.  Crossing the gallery, he cast a glance beneath him, and saw the same dark watery passage, leading between the masonry of two massive piles to the quay and the port.