An Accomplished Gentleman Author:Julian Sturgis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: trembling out into the quiet air, and the gondoliers about the steps below lolled and laughed in the sunshine. CHAPTER II. " Though for myself alone I woul... more »d not be ambitious in my wish To wish myself much better ; yet for you I would be trebled twenty times myself, A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich." Out on the broad lagoon rests the fairest of fair islands, scarce large enough for all the wealth of trees and shrubs and flowers, free from all hedge and barrier, and boasting but two buildings. The one is a long roomy shed, wherein the good Swiss cows find warmth and shelter ; the other is an old weather-beaten dwelling, of doubtful aspect, fortress, convent, or fishermen's haunt, still looking askance over the green with an ancient air of mystery, though holding nothing stranger than Hugo Deane and his family. Mr. Deane liked the old house, partly for its appearance of distinction, partly because it was cheap and he could not bear to be harassed by daily questions of expense, and partly because he thought it necessary to be close to Venice. He might any day have to consult the archives for the furtherance of his great work. It had been long known to several literary personsthat Mr. Deane was at work on a history of Venice —a comprehensive history, beginning with the first flight of fugitives who settled like sea-birds on the water, and ending with the final departure of the Austrian band from the Piazza di San Marco. Such a history, political, social, and artistic, would doubtless occupy a considerable period in the making. Meanwhile Mr. Deane worked in a delightful room, into which the sun could be admitted at any hour of the day. There he might sit and let his eyes rest on the long leaves of oleander and on brighter bay ; on the fair waters beyond,...« less