Now you are a man, whom the highest noble in Venice might be proud of calling his son.

You have no reason to regret, therefore, that you have, for a year, taken up soldiering instead of trading, especially as our business was all stopped by the war, and you must have passed your time in inactivity." In the evening, when the merchant and Francis were alone together, the former said: "I told you last autumn, Francis, when I informed you that, henceforth, you would enter into my house as a partner in the business, when we again recommenced trade, that I had something else in my mind, but the time to speak of it had not then arrived.

I think it has now come.

Tell me, my boy, frankly, if there is anything that you would wish to ask of me." Francis was silent for a moment; then he said: "You have done so much, Signor Polani.

You have heaped kindness upon me, altogether beyond anything I could have hoped for, that, even did I wish for more, I could not ask it." "Then there is something more you would like, Francisco.