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Updated: June 20, 2025
Look at those things he has made, there, on the table! Is there a man living who could make one of them? Not you, yourself; you know it better than I do!" "No," answered Beroviero. "That is true. Nor is there any one who could make the glass he used for them without the secrets that are in the book and more too, for it is better than my own." Marietta looked at him in surprise.
But I should have told you that one morning there came a patrician of Venice, Messer Zuan Venier, who wished to see you, being a friend of Messer Jacopo Contarini, and when he heard that you were away he desired to see Zorzi, and stayed some time." "I know him by name," said Beroviero, nodding. "But there can be no connection between him and this Greek."
"If I caught any one using my boat without my leave, I would make him pay dear," said Beroviero, but without anger, as if he were stating a general truth. "Whoever it was who took the boat brought it back an hour after midnight, locked the padlock again and went away," said Marietta. "Tell Nella that I am much indebted to her for her watchfulness. She is as good as a house-dog.
He followed a theory of his own in doing so, for although he was tolerably sure of the nature of the ingredients, as was every workman in the house, neither he nor they knew anything of the proportions in which Beroviero mixed the substances, and every glass-maker knows by experience that those proportions constitute by far the most important element of success.
Marietta stood within the shadow of the doorway, very pale. Nella was beside her, and Giovanni's wife, and further in, at a respectful distance, the serving-people, for the master's departure was an event of importance. The gondola pushed off when Beroviero had disappeared under the 'felse' with a final wave of the hand.
Beroviero was looking hard at Giovanni, but he was now thoroughly alarmed for the safety of his treasured manuscript, and listened with attention and without any hostility. The proofs seemed at first sight very strong, and after all Zorzi was only a Dalmatian and a foreigner, who might have yielded to temptation. "What did you do?" asked Beroviero.
It was like his own, but it was better, and the knowledge of its composition and treatment was a fortune. Then, too, the secret of dropping a piece of copper into a certain mixture in order to produce a particularly beautiful red colour was in the book, and the colour could not be mistaken and was not the one which Beroviero had been trying to produce.
He glanced sideways at the girl's figure as she disappeared through the door, and he thoughtfully pushed another piece of wood into the fire. Some day, perhaps before long, she would marry this man who had been mentioned, and then Zorzi would be alone with old Beroviero in the laboratory. He set his teeth, and poked the fire with, an iron rod.
Marietta thought with terror of the awful tales Nella had told her about the little torture chamber behind the hall of the Council. "Who is that Messer Zuan Venier, who came to see Zorzi?" asked Marietta suddenly. "A young man who fought very bravely in the East, I believe," answered Beroviero. "His father was the Admiral of the Republic for some time." "He has talked with Zorzi," said Marietta.
He did not blush as he had blushed yesterday, when he looked up from the fire and saw her; he merely inclined his head respectfully, to acknowledge her presence, and then he stood by the table waiting for the master to notice him, and not bestowing another glance on the young girl. Beroviero turned to him at last. He was so used to Marietta's presence that he paid no attention to her.
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