mien and tread were those of one long accustomed to authority.  He seemed a man born after his time, and worthy to have lived and acted in the high and palmy days of Venice.  After attending the archduke to the steps of the dais at the upper end of the hall, he made his bow, and began to pace the floor in seeming abstraction from the gay scene around him.  Arrested in his progress by the numerous groups which, after saluting the archduke, had again collected around the counsellor’s lady, he paused in returning conciousness; and, looking for the cause of such unwonted attraction, was enabled, by his lofty stature, to obtain a glimpse of the jewelled lady within the circle.  Her features were unknown to him; but when his careless gaze fell upon the rare ornament which crowned her redundant tresses, his countenance became suddenly darkened by some strong emotion.  Again, he looked more earnestly, and with increasing wonder and curiosity.  Controlling, by a sudden effort, all outward evidence of feeling, he watched his opportunity, and at length penetrating within the crowd, stood for some moments before the object of attraction, and gazed, as if admiringly, upon her various adornments in succession; then, bowing gracefully, he addressed to her some words of compliment upon the splendour and value of the dazzling bird upon her head.  “Fair lady,” he continued, “I have a daughter whom I fondly love, and fain would I bestow upon her youthful beauty such ornaments as yours.  But say, I pray you, where can the cunning hand be found which fashions such glorious birds?  Was it in Venice or Vienna that you bought this materpiece of art?” Unsuspicious of evil, and bridling at gratified vanity at this attention from a stranger of such distinguished mien, the spoil-bedecked fair one replied to him as she had done to others.

“I bought this ornament, some weeks back, in Venice, at the store of a Greek trader from the Levant.”

“Ha!” exclaimed the stranger; “and where dwelt this Greek, that I may see and ask him for another such?”

The concious lady, embarrassed by such close questioning, and somewhat alarmed by the kindling glances of the questioner, replied in haste—­“Nay, signor, now I remember better, it was not a Greek I bought these gauds, but of a trading Jew, who walks the Merceria with a box of jewellry.”

“Just now, methinks, you said a Greek, fair lady; and now you say a Jew.  What next?  Why not a Moslem, or perchance an Uzcoque?”

At this ominous conclusion, which the stranger muttered in tones of marked significance, the alarmed culprit started to her feet; and her fierce temper getting the better of her prudence, she boldly faced the cavalier, exclaiming, in a louder key than beseemed a courtier’s wife—­

“And who are you, signor, that dare thus question the lady of an archducal counsellor?”

“Lady!” he sternly answered, “here I am known to none save your husband’s master; but in Venice men call me the Proveditore Marcello.”