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Pippo looked at her with such admiration that he was incapable of speaking. Whatever the circumstances, it is impossible to see a perfectly beautiful woman without astonishment and without respect. Pippo had often met Beatrice when out walking, and at private parties. He had himself praised her beauty a hundred times and had heard others do the same. She was a daughter of Pietro Loredano, member of the Council of Ten, and great-granddaughter of the famous Loredano, who took such an active part in the trial of Giacomo Foscari. The pride of this family was but too well known in Venice, and Beatrice passed, in the eyes of all, as having inherited the spirit of her ancestors. When still quite young, she had been married to the procurator Marco Donato, and the death of the latter had left her free and in possession of great wealth.