And that evening another of my foolish dreams came true!  I sat in a gondola with the lady of the grey pongee to hear the singing on the Grand Canal;—­not, it is true, at her feet, but upon a little chair beside her mother.  It was my place—­to be, as I had been all day, escort to the mother, and guide and courier for that small party.  Contented enough was I to accept it!  How could I have hoped that the Most Blessed Mother would grant me so much nearness as that?  It was not happiness that I felt, but something so much more precious, as though my heart-strings were the strings of a harp, and sad, beautiful arpeggios ran over them.

I could not speak much that evening, nor could Poor Jr.  We were very silent and listened to the singing, our gondola just touching the others on each side, those in turn touching others, so that a musician from the barge could cross from one to another, presenting the hat for contributions.  In spite of this extreme propinquity, I feared the collector would fall into the water when he received the offering of Poor Jr.  It was “Gra-a-az’, Mi-lor!  Graz’!” a hundred times, with bows and grateful smiles indeed!

It is the one place in the world where you listen to a bad voice with pleasure, and none of the voices are good—­they are harsh and worn with the night-singing—­yet all are beautiful because they are enchanted.

They sang some of our own Neapolitan songs that night, and last of all the loveliest of all, “La Luna Nova.”  It was to the cadence of it that our gondoliers moved us out of the throng, and it still drifted on the water as we swung, far down, into sight of the lights of the Ledo: 

“Luna d’ar-gen-to fal-lo so-gnar—­

Ba-cia-lo in fron-te non lo de-star. . . .”

Not so sweetly came those measures as the low voice of the beautiful lady speaking them.

“One could never forget it, never!” she said.  “I might hear it a thousand other times and forget them, but never this first time.”

I perceived that Poor Jr. turned his face abruptly toward hers at this, but he said nothing, by which I understood not only his wisdom but his forbearance.

“Strangely enough,” she went on, slowly, “that song reminded me of something in Paris.  Do you remember”—­she turned to Poor Jr.—­“that poor man we saw in front of the Cafe’ de la Paix with the sign painted upon his head?”

Ah, the good-night, with its friendly cloak!  The good, kind night!

“I remember,” he answered, with some shortness.  “A little faster, boatman!”

“I don’t know what made it,” she said, “I can’t account for it, but I’ve been thinking of him all through that last song.”

Perhaps not so strange, since one may know how wildly that poor devil had been thinking of her!

“I’ve thought of him so often,” the gentle voice went on.  “I felt so sorry for him.  I never felt sorrier for any one in my life.  I was sorry for the poor, thin cab-horses in Paris, but I was sorrier for him.  I think it was the saddest sight I ever saw.  Do you suppose he still has to do that, Rufus?”