ave noticed them at
the time.

Zorzi knew too little of women to have any idea of what he ought to do
under the circumstances. He did not know whether to turn his back or to
go away, so he stood still and looked at her, which was the very worst
thing he could have done. Worse still, he tried to reason with her.

"I assure you that you are mistaken," he said in a soothing tone. "I
wish for your friendship with all my heart! Only, when you ask me--"

"Oh, go away! For heaven's sake go away!" cried Marietta, almost
choking, and turning her face quite away, so that he could only see the
back of her head.

At the same time, she tapped the ground impatiently with her foot, and
to make matters worse, the little basket of beads began to slip off her
knees at the same moment. She caught at it desperately, trying not to
look round and half blinded by her tears, but she missed it, and but for
Zorzi it would have fallen. He put it into her hands very gently, but
she was not in the least grateful.

"Oh, please go away!" she repeated. "Can you not understand?"

He did not understand, but he obeyed her and turned away, very grave,
very much puzzled by this new development of affairs, and sincerely
wishing that some wise familiar spirit would whisper the explanation in
his ear, since he could not possibly consult any living person.

She heard him go and she listened for the shutting of the laboratory
door. Then she knew that she was quite alone in the garden, and she let
the tears flow as they would, bending her head till it touched the trunk
of the tree, and they wet the smooth bark and ran down to the dry earth.

Zorzi went in, and began to tend the fire as usual, until it should
please the master to give him other orders. Old Beroviero was sitting in
the big chair in which he sometimes rested himself, his elbow on one of
its arms, and his hand grasping his beard below his chin.

"Zorzi," he said at last, "I have seen that man before."

Zorzi looked at him, expecting more, but for some time Beroviero said
nothing. The young man selected his pieces of beech wood, laying them
ready before the little opening just above the floor.

"It is very strange," said Beroviero at last. "He seems to be a rich
merchant now, but I am almost quite sure that I saw him in Naples."

"Did you know him there, sir?" asked Zorzi.

"No," answered his master thoughtfully. "I saw him in a cart with his
hands tied behind him, on his way to be hang