Nevil escaped, and walked in the direction of the Frari down calle and campiello.  Only to see her—­to compare her with the Renee of the past hour!  But that Renee had been all the while a feast of delusion; she could never be resuscitated in the shape he had known, not even clearly visioned.  Not a day of her, not an hour, not a single look had been his own.  She had been sold when he first beheld her, and should, he muttered austerely, have been ticketed the property of a middle-aged man, a worn-out French marquis, whom she had agreed to marry, unwooed, without love—­the creature of a transaction.  But she was innocent, she was unaware of the sin residing in a loveless marriage; and this restored her to him somewhat as a drowned body is given back to mourners.

After aimless walking he found himself on the Zattere, where the lonely Giudecca lies in front, covering mud and marsh and lagune-flames of later afternoon, and you have sight of the high mainland hills which seem to fling forth one over other to a golden sea-cape.

Midway on this unadorned Zattere, with its young trees and spots of shade, he was met by Renee and her father.  Their gondola was below, close to the riva, and the count said, ’She is tired of standing gazing at pictures.  There is a Veronese in one of the churches of the Giudecca opposite.  Will you, M. Nevil, act as parade-escort to her here for half an hour, while I go over?  Renee complains that she loses the vulgar art of walking in her complaisant attention to the fine Arts.  I weary my poor child.’

Renee protested in a rapid chatter.

‘Must I avow it?’ said the count; ‘she damps my enthusiasm a little.’

Nevil mutely accepted the office.

Twice that day was she surrendered to him:  once in his ignorance, when time appeared an expanse of many sunny fields.  On this occasion it puffed steam; yet, after seeing the count embark, he commenced the parade in silence.

‘This is a nice walk,’ said Renee; ’we have not the steps of the Riva dei Schiavoni.  It is rather melancholy though.  How did you discover it?  I persuaded my papa to send the gondola round, and walk till we came to the water.  Tell me about the Giudecca.’

’The Giudecca was a place kept apart for the Jews, I believe.  You have seen their burial-ground on the Lido.  Those are, I think, the Euganean hills.  You are fond of Petrarch.’

’M.  Nevil, omitting the allusion to the poet, you have, permit me to remark, the brevity without the precision of an accredited guide to notabilities.’

‘I tell you what I know,’ said Nevil, brooding on the finished tone and womanly aplomb of her language.  It made him forget that she was a girl entrusted to his guardianship.  His heart came out.

’Renee, if you loved him, I, on my honour, would not utter a word for myself.  Your heart’s inclinations are sacred for me.  I would stand by, and be your friend and his.  If he were young, that I might see a chance of it!’