20While crossing San Marco square, feeling clumsy in her attractive amber silk dress, surrounded by the crowd going to Mass, Madonna Beatrice felt her cheeks grow red hot more than once. Her fashionable cloak was too short to hide anything while its bright green colour shone like an emerald, attracting even more attention. She had followed her husband reluctantly, knowing that the church would be crowded with people. She was never happy to leave the house but that morning she was even more timid than usual, aware of the topic of the sermon she was going to listen to. A poor girl, merchant Contini’s daughter, had been viciously killed while she was with her lover. Now, the Prior was going to take advantage of the situation to launch into a ferocious sermon against the decay of morality and
