" Though Marco was a very bold and adventurous sort of a boy, still he was not quite prepared for such a proposal as this.

" "He is noble enough to be thy son, my fatherand chivalrous as thoubut we are too noble to let him do aught unbefitting his noble house; for thou knowest the Giustiniani are like princes in Venice, and Marco is their only son.

Ramusio, who dates the commencement of the first journey in 1250, supposes Marco to have been fifteen years of age at the return of his father and uncle, which is absurd; as, if the era assumed by Ramusio were possibly true, he must then have been in his nineteenth year.

Marco was a pronounced success.

Marco was an expert climber.

"Marco, when thou wert a babe," she said, "there was little I would not give for thine asking.