ter's absence; and this thought perplexed him for a time,
until he reflected that Giovanni could not accuse him of the deed
without accusing himself of having searched for the box, a proceeding
which his father would never forgive. Zorzi did not intend to tell the
master of his conversation with Giovanni, nor of his suspicions. He
would only say that the hiding-place had not seemed safe enough, because
the stone gave a hollow sound which even the boys would notice if
anything fell upon it.

But for Nella, it would be safest to give the box into Marietta's
keeping, since no one could possibly suspect that it could have found
its way to her room. At the mere thought, his heart beat fast. It would
be a reason for seeing her alone, if he could, and for talking with her.
He planned how he would send her a message by Nella, begging that he
might speak to her on some urgent business of her father's, and she
would come as she had come before; they would talk in the garden, under
the plane-tree, where Pasquale and Nella could see them, and he would
explain what he wanted. Then he would give her the box. He thought of it
with calm delight, as he saw it all in a beautiful vision.

But there was Nella, and there was Pasquale, the former indiscreet, the
latter silent but keen-sighted, and quick-witted in spite of his slow
and surly ways. Every one knew that the book existed somewhere, and the
porter and the serving-woman would guess the truth at once. At present
no one but himself knew positively where the thing was. If he carried
out his plan, three other persons would possess the knowledge. It was
not to be thought of.

He looked about the laboratory. There were the beams and crossbeams, and
the box would probably just fit into one of the shadowy interstices
between two of the latter. But they were twenty feet from the ground, he
had no ladder, and if there had been one at hand he could not have
mounted it yet. His eye fell on the big earthen jar, more than half a
man's height and as big round as a hogshead, half full of broken glass
from the experiments. No one would think of it as a place for hiding
anything, and it would not be emptied till it was quite full, several
months hence. Besides, no one would dare to empty it without Beroviero's
orders, as it contained nothing but fine red glass, which was valuable
and only needed melting to be used at once.

It was not an easy matter to take out half the contents, and he was in
c