Page:Blue Magic.djvu/106

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BLUE MAGIC

behind those blank, arched windows?

The supper was eaten in silence, and the strange setting seemed to give it a mystic air of unreality. The bread and butter and cambric tea were changed to magic food. Fen held his breath and dared not believe, even yet, that it was all true, and not some sort of very wonderful dream.

When tea was over, and the gondolier had politely refused the sandwiches Siddereticus had offered him at Fen's suggestion, the gondola buried itself once more in the dim lanes. Now and then a single street-lamp, high above the water, threw a trembling reflection into the black depths. There was not a sound, except the ripple of the oar through the water, and the weird, melancholy Giaé! Giaé! of the gondolier as he rounded the sharp turns. In and out the boat wove through a bewildering labyrinth of narrow ways, under ancient walls and high, grated

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