THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

   Agnes
   Lucas Cleeve
   Sybil Cleeve
   sir Sandford Cleeve
   Duke of st. Olpherts
   Gertrude Thorpe
   Rev.  Amos Winterfield
   sir George Brodrick
   Dr. Kirke
   fortune
   Antonio POPPI
   Nella
   Hephzibah

The Scene is laid in Venice—­first at the Palazzo Arconati, a lodging house on the Grand Canal; afterwards in an apartment in the Campo S. Bartolomeo.

It is Easter-tide, a week passing between the events of the First and Second Acts.

THE FIRST ACT

The Scene is a room in the Palazzo Arconati, on the Grand Canal, Venice.  The room itself is beautiful in its decayed grandeur, but the furnishings and hangings are either tawdry and meretricious or avowedly modern.  The three windows at the back open on to a narrow covered balcony, or loggia, and through them can be seen the west side of the canal.  Between recessed double doors on either side of the room is a fireplace out of use and a marble mantelpiece, but a tiled stove is used for a wood fire.  Breakfast things are laid on the table.  The sun streams into the room.

[Antonio POPPI and Nella, two Venetian servants, with a touch of the picturesque in their attire, are engaged in clearing the breakfast-table.]

Nella. [Turning her head.] Ascolta! (Listen!)

Antonio.  Una gondola allo scalo. (A gondala at our steps.)[They open the centre-window, go out on to the balcony, and look down below.] La Signora Thorpe. (The Signora Thorpe.)

NELLO.  Con suo fratello. (With her brother.)

Antonio. [Calling.] Buon di, Signor Winterfield!  Iddio la benedica! [Good day, Signor Winterfield!  The blessing of God be upon you!]

Nella. [Calling.] Buon di, Signora!  La Madonna Passista! (Good day, Signora!  May the Virgin have you in her keeping!)

Antonio. [Returning to the room.] Noi siamo in ritardo di tutto questa mattina. (We are behindhand with everything this morning.)

Nella. [Following him.] E vero. (That is true.)

Antonio. [Bustling about.] La stufa! (The stove!)

Nella. [Throwing wood into the stove.] Che tua sia benedetta per rammentarmelo!  Questi Inglesi non si contentono del sole. (Bless you for remembering it.  These English are not content with the sun.)

[Leaving only a vase of flowers upon the table, they hurry out with the breakfast things.  At the same moment, fortune, a manservant, enters, showing in Mrs. Thorpe and the Rev.  Amos Winterfield.  Gertrude Thorpe is a pretty, frank-looking young woman of about seven and twenty.  She is in mourning, and has sorrowful eyes and a complexion that is too delicate, but natural cheerfulness and brightness are seen through all.  Amos is about forty—­big, burly, gruff; he is untidily dressed, and has a pipe in his hand.  Fortune is carrying a pair of freshly-cleaned tan-coloured boots upon boot-trees.]