CHAPTER II.
"Hast ever swam in a gondola at Venice ?" SHAKSPEARE.
When Don Camillo Monforte entered the gondola, he did not take his seat in the pavilion.

With an arm leaning on the top of the canopy, and his cloak thrown loosely over one shoulder, the young noble stood, in a musing attitude, until his dexterous servitors had extricated the boat from the little fleet which crowded the quay, and had urged it into open water.

This duty performed, Gino touched his scarlet cap, and looked at his master as if to inquire the direction in which they were to proceed.
He was answered by a silent gesture that indicated the route of the great canal.
"Thou hast an ambition, Gino, to show thy skill in the regatta ?" Don Camillo observed, when they had made a little progress.

"The motive merits success.

Thou wast speaking to a stranger when I summoned thee to the gondola ?" "I was asking the news of our Calabrian hills from one who has come into port with his felucca, though the man took the name of San Gennaro to witness that his former luckless voyage should be the last." "How does he call his felucca, and what is the name of the padrone ?" "La Bella Sorrentina, commanded by a certain Stefano Milano, son of an ancient servant of Sant' Agata.