require all the address and diplomacy I possessed, to make anything out of her society.  She laughed incessantly; darted in the most diverse directions, dragging me along with her; exhibited me in triumph to her cronies; made eyes at me over a fan, repeated my clumsiest remarks, as though they gave her indescribable amusement; and all the while jabbered Venetian at express rate, without the slightest regard for my incapacity to follow her vagaries.  The Vecchio marshalled us in order.  First went the sposa and comare with the mothers of bride and bridegroom.  Then followed the sposo and the bridesmaid.  After them I was made to lead my fair tormentor.  As we descended the staircase there arose a hubbub of excitement from the crowd on the canals.  The gondolas moved turbidly upon the face of the waters.  The bridegroom kept muttering to himself, ’How we shall be criticised!  They will tell each other who was decently dressed, and who stepped awkwardly into the boats, and what the price of my boots was!’ Such exclamations, murmured at intervals, and followed by chest-drawn sighs, expressed a deep preoccupation.  With regard to his boots, he need have had no anxiety.  They were of the shiniest patent leather, much too tight, and without a speck of dust upon them.  But his nervousness infected me with a cruel dread.  All those eyes were going to watch how we comported ourselves in jumping from the landing-steps into the boat!  If this operation, upon a ceremonious occasion, has terrors even for a gondolier, how formidable it ought to be to me!  And here is the Signora dell’ Acqua’s white cachemire shawl dangling on one arm, and the Signora herself languishingly clinging to the other; and the gondolas are fretting in a fury of excitement, like corks, upon the churned green water!  The moment was terrible.  The sposa and her three companions had been safely stowed away beneath their felze.  The sposo had successfully handed the bridesmaid into the second gondola.  I had to perform the same office for my partner.  Off she went, like a bird, from the bank.  I seized a happy moment, followed, bowed, and found myself to my contentment gracefully ensconced in a corner opposite the widow.  Seven more gondolas were packed.  The procession moved.  We glided down the little channel, broke away into the Grand Canal, crossed it, and dived into a labyrinth from which we finally emerged before our destination, the Trattoria di San Gallo.  The perils of the landing were soon over; and, with the rest of the guests, my mercurial companion and I slowly ascended a long flight of stairs leading to a vast upper chamber.  Here we were to dine.