have been fairy-like, but for the tremendous solidity of the steamer's ponderous hull, marked out with rippling fires and bearing aloft, in emblazonry of lamp and transparency, the flags and banners of Italy and Great Britain.
As far as the eye could reach on the right, away past the Bridge of Sighs, the steps of Saint Mark's, the Campanile, the Custom House and the famous adjacent church of Maria della Salute, the air was luminous with artificial light, and the water was alive with every class of boat and gondola, each vessel bearing variegated lamps of every shape and color. Songs and choruses came up to the Riva balcony in a curious complication of discordant sounds, with now and then flashes of melody; the National Anthem, and the cheering, defiant strains of that Neapolitan melody, the "Funiculi, Funicula," which had made so strange an appeal to the sentimental mind of Philip Forsyth.
It was not yet the hour at which they were invited to the Countess Stravensky's reception at the Palazzo Fazio. The idea of this brilliant function was to swell the moonlight parade of boats with a distinguished company between ten and eleven, at which time it was understood that the King and Queen would enjoy the scene and take part in it incognito.
Walter, Philip and Dolly were so much overcome with the scene before them, that, judging by their silence, they were at the moment indifferent to the social delights which Jenny anticipated at the Fazio Palace.
Philip, however, was far more engrossed in the possibilities of the future than in the contemplation of the present. His state of mind might be described as drifting. It was like a boat upon some calm, fascinating stream, making its way with the current, without compass or rudder, and content to glide on, fanned by perfumed breezes and lulled with sweet narcotics.
