The summer had waned when, with cries of
ecstasy, they all passed out on the balcony that overhung the Grand
Canal. The sunsets then were splendid and the Dorringtons had arrived.
The Dorringtons were the only reason they hadn't talked of at breakfast;
but the reasons they didn't talk of at breakfast always came out in the
end. The Dorringtons on the other hand came out very little; or else
when they did they stayed--as was natural--for hours, during which
periods Mrs. Moreen and the girls sometimes called at their hotel (to see
if they had returned) as many as three times running. The gondola was
for the ladies, as in Venice too there were "days," which Mrs. Moreen
knew in their order an hour after she arrived. She immediately took one
herself, to which the Dorringtons never came, though on a certain
occasion when Pemberton and his pupil were together at St. Mark's--where,
taking the best walks they had ever had and haunting a hundred churches,
they spent a great deal of time--they saw the old lord turn up with Mr.
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