crazy outer balconies half closed in by lattices behind which the women sat for coolness, and sometimes even slept in the hot months.  For the great city of stone and brick was not half built yet, and the space before Saint Mark’s was much larger than it is now, for the Procuratie did not yet exist, nor the clock, but the great bell-tower stood almost in the middle of an open square, and there were little wooden booths at its base, in which all sorts of cheap trinkets were sold.  There were also such booths and small shops at the base of the two columns.  Also, the bridge of Rialto was a broad bridge of boats, on which shops were built on each side of the way, and the middle of the bridge could be drawn out, for the great Bucentoro to pass through, when the Doge went out in state to wed the sea.

Giovanni Beroviero was well known to Contarini’s household, for all knew of the approaching marriage, and the servants were not surprised when he inquired for the Governor of Murano, saying that his business was urgent.  But the Governor was not there, nor the master of the house.  They were gone to the Grand Canal.  Would the Signor Giovanni like to speak with Messer Jacopo, who chanced to be in the palace and alone?  It was still early, and Giovanni thought that the opportunity was a good one for ingratiating himself with his future brother-in-law.  He would go in, if he should not disturb Messer Jacopo.  He was announced and ushered respectfully into the great hall, and thence up the broad staircase to the hall of reception above.  And below, his gondoliers gossiped with the servants, talking about the coming marriage, and many indiscreet things were said, which it was better that their masters should not hear; as for instance that Jacopo was really living in the house of the Agnus Dei, where he kept a beautiful Georgian slave in unheard-of luxury, and that this was a great grief to his father, who was therefore very desirous of hastening the marriage with Marietta.  The porter winked one eye solemnly at the head gondolier, as who should imply that the establishment at the Agnus Dei would not be given up for twenty marriages; but the gondolier said boldly that if Jacopo did not change his life after he had married Marietta, something would happen to him.  Upon this the porter inquired superciliously what, in the name of a great many beings, celestial and infernal, could possibly happen to any Contarini who chose to do as he pleased.  The gondolier answered that there were laws, the porter retorted that the laws were made for glass-blowers but not for patricians, and the two might have come to blows if they had not just then heard their masters’ voices from the landing of the great staircase; and of coarse it was far more important to overhear all they could of the conversation than to quarrel about a point of law.