then
counted among the comforts of life have been found than in this less
sumptuous house of Murano, while its luxuries were all such as centered
about his art. He was one of the magnates of his island, for his
furnaces were among the most famous of Murano, and to him belonged
secrets of the craft in his special field to which no others had yet
attained, while in a degree that would scarcely have been esteemed by
the merchant princes of Venice, who sat in the Consiglio, they had
brought him wealth and repute. But to him, whose heart was in his work,
it was power and glory that sufficed. No stranger whom it was desired to
honor came to Venice but was conducted, with a ceremony that was
flattering, while it was also a due precaution against too curious
questioning, through the show-rooms of the factories of Murano; and
often in this chamber had gathered a group of men whom the world called
great, led by that special Chief of the Ten who was then in power at
Murano, to see the treasures of this cabinet of which Girolamo was
justly proud.

This first bit of the wonderful coloring which glowed and flashed when
the light shot through it, as if some living fire were caught in its
heart; or that curious, tortured shape, with its dragon-eyes of jewels,
and its tongue forever thrusting at you some secret which it almost
utters, yet withholds; this fragment of tenderest opalescence which is
of no color, yet blending all, as if a shower of petals were blown
across a rainbow in spring; that one--frosted in silver and gold--pink,
with the yellow sunshine in its core; here the aquamarine, lucent as
Venice's own sea! And here, throned in regal state, in its quaint case
of faded azure velvet, is that very masterpiece of the glass-workers of
Murano which was carried in the first solemn procession of all the arts
at a Doge's triumph in the thirteenth century. Its very possession was a
patent of nobility in Girolamo's reverent esteem; and the most gracious
letter of the Senate, conferring upon this piece of glass the
distinction of first mention among all that were shown upon that day of
triumph, is here also--a yellowed parchment, carefully inclosed in the
little morocco case, securely screwed to the shelf beneath, and Marina
had been present when it was opened for some rare visitor. It was a
relic of those earlier days when there were no furnaces in Murano,
though many of the finest workers came from this island and belonged to
the cor