I have bought cheaply, and the business should have been a very profitable one; but my partner in London is either not acting fairly by me, or he is mismanaging matters altogether.

This offer, then, of Signor Polani is in every respect acceptable.

I shall give up my own business and start anew, and selling, as I shall, on commission, shall run no risk, while the profits will be far larger than I could myself make, for Polani will carry it on on a great scale.
"As for you, you will soon learn the ways of trade, and will be able to come home and join me, and eventually succeed me in the business.
"No fairer prospect could well open to a young man, and if you show yourself as keen in business, as you have been energetic in the pursuits you have adopted, assuredly a great future is open to you, and you may look to be one of the greatest merchants in the city of London.
I know not yet what offers Polani may make you here, but I hope that you will not settle in Venice permanently, but will always remember that you are an Englishman, and the son of a London citizen, and that you will never lose your love for your native land.
"And yet, do not hurry home for my sake.

Your two brothers will soon have finished their schooling, and will, of course, be apprenticed to me as soon as I return; and if, as I hope, they turn out steady and industrious; they will, by the time they come to man's estate, be of great assistance to me in the business.
"And now, you will be wanting to say goodbye to your friends.

Be careful this last evening, for it is just when you are thinking most of other matters, that sudden misfortune is likely to come upon you." Delighted with his good fortune--rather because it opened up a life of activity, instead of the confinement to business that he had dreaded, than for the pecuniary advantages it offered--Francis ran downstairs and, leaping into his father's gondola, told Beppo to take him to the Palazzo Giustiniani.