Remember that I have told you that I regard you as a son, and therefore I wish you to speak to me, as frankly as if I was really your father." "I fear, signor, that you will think me audacious, but since you thus urge upon me to speak all that is in my mind, I cannot but tell you the truth.

I love your daughter, Giulia, and have done so ever since the first day that my eyes fell on her.

It has seemed to me too much, even to hope, that she can ever be mine, and I have been careful in letting no word expressive of my feelings pass my lips.

It still seems, to me, beyond the bounds of possibility that I could successfully aspire to the hand of the daughter of one of the noblest families in Venice." "I am glad you have spoken frankly, dear lad," the merchant said.

"Ever since you rescued my daughters from the hands of Mocenigo, it has been on my mind that someday, perhaps, you would be my son-in-law, as well as my son by adoption.