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.