United States or French Polynesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Do you mean to kill him?" asked Arisa in a whisper, though it was quite safe for them to talk in natural tones. "I could go behind him and throw something over his head." Aristarchi grinned, and pressed her beautiful head to his breast, caressing her with his rough hands. "You are as bloodthirsty as a little tigress," he said. "No. I do not even mean to hurt him."
The mysterious, almond-shaped eyes were those of another race, the marble cheek was more perfectly modelled and turned than an Italian's, the curling golden hair was more glorious than any Venetian's. Arisa had come to see her master's bride, and he knew that she was there looking on. Why should he care?
Arisa heard the well-known footstep, and placed one hand over Aristarchi's mouth, lest he should speak, while the other pointed to the curtained door. The Greek held his breath. "Arisa! Arisa!" Contarini called out. "Bring me a light, sweetest!" Without hesitation Arisa took the lighted candle, and making a gesture of warning to Aristarchi went quickly to the other room.
It slid back with the soft sound Contarini had heard before he came upstairs. The upper part of the woodwork was built into the wall. "They meet in the place below this," Arisa said. "When they are there, I can see a glimmer of light. I cannot get my head in. It is too narrow, but I hear as if I were with them."
The order to leave Venice had come an hour later. The anchors were now up, and the vessel was riding to a kedge by a light hawser, well out in the channel. As soon as Arisa could be brought on board Aristarchi meant to make sail, for the strong offshore breeze would blow all night. "We may as well leave nothing behind," said Aristarchi coolly.
If you understood Greek, I would repeat some verses I know about him." "Should you love me more, if I understood Greek?" asked Arisa softly. "If I thought so, I would learn it." Aristarchi laughed roughly, so that she was almost afraid lest he should be heard far down in the house. "Learn Greek? You? To make me like you better? You would be just as beautiful if you were altogether dumb!
One, two and three in the back, the body to the canal, and the marriage would have been broken off." "Perhaps he does not wish it broken off," suggested Arisa, taking an equally amiable but somewhat different point of view. "He cannot marry the girl, of course but if she is once married and out of her father's house, it will be different." "That is an idea," assented Aristarchi. "Look at us two.
"The man is a fool!" said Aristarchi again. "He puts himself in their power." "He is much more completely in ours," answered Arisa. "The servants believe that his friends come to play dice. And so they do. But they come for something more serious." Aristarchi moved his massive head suddenly to an attitude of profound attention. "They are plotting against the Republic," whispered Arisa.
I should like to see whether he could be frightened, for they say it is impossible." Aristarchi scratched his head, pushing his shaggy hair forward over his forehead, as he tried to think of an effectual scheme for producing the desired result. "The Ten might pursue us for that, as well as for a murder," said Arisa.
For a few minutes they had all been very near together, the deceivers and the deceived, and it was not likely that they should ever all be so near again. Contarini had never seen the Greek, and Arisa was not aware that he was in the church. When Beroviero and Marietta were gone, Jacopo turned his back on the slave for a moment as if he meant to walk further up the church.
Word Of The Day