CHAPTER VI.
My Grandmother's Death and Its Consequences I Lose M.de Malipiero's Friendship--I Have No Longer a Home-- La Tintoretta--I Am Sent to a Clerical Seminary--I Am Expelled From It, and Confined in a Fortress During supper the conversation turned altogether upon the storm, and the official, who knew the weakness of his wife, told me that he was quite certain I would never travel with her again.

"Nor I with him," his wife remarked, "for, in his fearful impiety, he exorcised the lightning with jokes." Henceforth she avoided me so skilfully that I never could contrive another interview with her.
When I returned to Venice I found my grandmother ill, and I had to change all my habits, for I loved her too dearly not to surround her with every care and attention; I never left her until she had breathed her last.

She was unable to leave me anything, for during her life she had given me all she could, and her death compelled me to adopt an entirely different mode of life.
A month after her death, I received a letter from my mother informing me that, as there was no probability of her return to Venice, she had determined to give up the house, the rent of which she was still paying, that she had communicated her intention to the Abbe Grimani, and that I was to be guided entirely by his advice.
He was instructed to sell the furniture, and to place me, as well as my brothers and my sister, in a good boarding-house.

I called upon Grimani to assure him of my perfect disposition to obey his commands.
The rent of the house had been paid until the end of the year; but, as I was aware that the furniture would be sold on the expiration of the term, I placed my wants under no restraint.

I had already sold some linen, most of the china, and several tapestries; I now began to dispose of the mirrors, beds, etc.