I was seldom at home in the evening, for when I attempted to occupy myself in my apartments the lamplight brought in a swarm of noxious insects, and it was too hot for closed windows.
Accordingly I spent the late hours either on the water (the moonlight of Venice is famous), or in the splendid square which serves as a vast forecourt to the strange old basilica of Saint Mark.I sat in front of Florian's cafe, eating ices, listening to music, talking with acquaintances: the traveler will remember how the immense cluster of tables and little chairs stretches like a promontory into the smooth lake of the Piazza.
The whole place, of a summer's evening, under the stars and with all the lamps, all the voices and light footsteps on marble (the only sounds of the arcades that enclose it), is like an open-air saloon dedicated to cooling drinks and to a still finer degustation--that of the exquisite impressions received during the day.
When I did not prefer to keep mine to myself there was always a stray tourist, disencumbered of his Baedeker, to discuss them with, or some domesticated painter rejoicing in the return of the season of strong effects.The wonderful church, with its low domes and bristling embroideries, the mystery of its mosaic and sculpture, looking ghostly in the tempered gloom, and the sea breeze passed between the twin columns of the Piazzetta, the lintels of a door no longer guarded, as gently as if a rich curtain were swaying there.
I used sometimes on these occasions to think of the Misses Bordereau and of the pity of their being shut up in apartments which in the Venetian July even Venetian vastness did not prevent from being stuffy.
Their life seemed miles away from the life of the Piazza, and no doubt it was really too late to make the austere Juliana change her habits.
But poor Miss Tita would have enjoyed one of Florian's ices, I was sure;sometimes I even had thoughts of carrying one home to her.
Fortunately my patience bore fruit, and I was not obliged to do anything so ridiculous.
One evening about the middle of July I came in earlier than usual--I forget what chance had led to this--and instead of going up to my quarters made my way into the garden.The temperature was very high;it was such a night as one would gladly have spent in the open air, and I was in no hurry to go to bed.I had floated home in my gondola, listening to the slow splash of the oar in the narrow dark canals, and now the only thought that solicited me was the vague reflection that it would be pleasant to recline at one's length in the fragrant darkness on a garden bench.The odor of the canal was doubtless at the bottom of that aspiration and the breath of the garden, as I entered it, gave consistency to my purpose.it was delicious--just such an air as must have trembled with Romeo's vows when he stood among the flowers and raised his arms to his mistress's balcony.
I looked at the windows of the palace to see if by chance the example of Verona (Verona being not far off) had been followed;but everything was dim, as usual, and everything was still.
Juliana, on summer nights in her youth, might have murmured down from open windows at Jeffrey Aspern, but Miss Tita was not a poet's mistress any more than I was a poet.This however did not prevent my gratification from being great as I became aware on reaching the end of the garden that Miss Tita was seated in my little bower.
At first I only made out an indistinct figure, not in the least counting on such an overture from one of my hostesses;it even occurred to me that some sentimental maidservant had stolen in to keep a tryst with her sweetheart.I was going to turn away, not to frighten her, when the figure rose to its height and Irecognized Miss Bordereau's niece.I must do myself the justice to say that I did not wish to frighten her either, and much as I had longed for some such accident I should have been capable of retreating.
It was as if I had laid a trap for her by coming home earlier than usual and adding to that eccentricity by creeping into the garden.
As she rose she spoke to me, and then I reflected that perhaps, secure in my almost inveterate absence, it was her nightly practice to take a lonely airing.There was no trap, in truth, because Ihad had no suspicion.At first I took for granted that the words she uttered expressed discomfiture at my arrival; but as she repeated them--I had not caught them clearly--I had the surprise of hearing her say, "Oh, dear, I'm so very glad you've come!"She and her aunt had in common the property of unexpected speeches.
She came out of the arbor almost as if she were going to throw herself into my arms.
I hasten to add that she did nothing of the kind; she did not even shake hands with me.It was a gratification to her to see me and presently she told me why--because she was nervous when she was out-of-doors at night alone.The plants and bushes looked so strange in the dark, and there were all sorts of queer sounds--she could not tell what they were--like the noises of animals.
She stood close to me, looking about her with an air of greater security but without any demonstration of interest in me as an individual.
Then I guessed that nocturnal prowlings were not in the least her habit, and I was also reminded (I had been struck with the circumstance in talking with her before I took possession) that it was impossible to overestimate her simplicity.
"You speak as if you were lost in the backwoods," I said, laughing.
"How you manage to keep out of this charming place when you have only three steps to take to get into it is more than I have yet been able to discover.
You hide away mighty well so long as I am on the premises, I know;but I had a hope that you peeped out a little at other times.
You and your poor aunt are worse off than Carmelite nuns in their cells.
