quarrel.

"Now tell me, Luigi--speak slowly, so I do not
miss a word. First, where is Loretta?"

"She was putting on her best clothes when I left--
those she bought herself. She will touch nothing Vittorio
gave her. She is going back to her mother in
an hour."

"But what happened? Has Francesco--?"

"Francesco has not stopped one minute since the
wedding. He has been talking to the fish-people,--
to everybody on the side street, saying that Loretta
was his old shoes that he left at his door, and the
fool Vittorio found them and put them on--that
sort of talk."

"And Vittorio believes it?"

"He did not at first,--but twice Francesco came
to see Loretta with messages from her mother, and
went sneaking off when Vittorio came up in his boat,
and then that night some one would tell him--'that
fellow meets Loretta every day;' that he was her old
lover. These people on the Giudecca do not like
the San Giuseppe people, and there is always jealousy.
If Vittorio had married any one from his own quarter
it would have been different. You don't know