forgotten his small resentment against Marietta, for not
having given him a sign nor sent one word of greeting. He knew only that
he loved her with all his heart and would give every hope he had for the
pressure of her hand in his and the sound of her answering voice; and he
dreaded lest she should pity him, as one pities a hurt creature that one
would rather not touch.

It would not be in the hope of seeing her that he might leave the
laboratory before long. He felt quite sure that Giovanni would make some
further attempt to get possession of the little book that meant fortune
to him who should possess it; and Giovanni evidently knew where it was.
It would he easy for him to send Zorzi on an errand of importance, as
soon as he should be so far recovered as to walk a little. The great
glass-houses had dealings with the banks in Venice and with merchants of
all countries, and Beroviero had more than once sent Zorzi to Venice on
business of moment. Giovanni would come in some morning and declare that
he could trust no one but Zorzi to collect certain sums of money in the
city, and he would take care that the matter should keep him absent
several hours. That would be ample time in which to try the flagstones
with a hammer and to turn over the right one. Zorzi had convinced
himself that it gave a hollow sound when he tapped it and that Giovanni
could find it easily enough.

It was therefore folly to leave the box in its present place any longer,
and he cast about in his mind for some safer spot in which to hide it.
In the meantime, fearing lest Giovanni might think of sending him out at
any moment, he waited till Pasquale had brought him water in the
morning, and then raised the stone, as he had done before, took the box
out of the earth and hid it in the cool end of the annealing oven, while
he replaced the slab. The effort it cost him to move the latter told him
plainly enough that his injury had weakened him almost as an illness
might have done, but he succeeded in getting the stone into its bed at
last. He tapped it with the end of his crutch as he knelt on the floor,
and the sound it gave was even more hollow than before. He smiled as he
thought how easily Giovanni would find the place, and how grievously
disappointed he would be when he realised that it was empty.

It occurred at once to Zorzi that Giovanni's first impression would
naturally be that Zorzi had taken the book himself in order to use it
during the mas