e
drawn out, for the great Bucentoro to pass through, when the Doge went
out in state to wed the sea.

Giovanni Beroviero was well known to Contarini's household, for all knew
of the approaching marriage, and the servants were not surprised when he
inquired for the Governor of Murano, saying that his business was
urgent. But the Governor was not there, nor the master of the house.
They were gone to the Grand Canal. Would the Signor Giovanni like to
speak with Messer Jacopo, who chanced to be in the palace and alone? It
was still early, and Giovanni thought that the opportunity was a good
one for ingratiating himself with his future brother-in-law. He would go
in, if he should not disturb Messer Jacopo. He was announced and ushered
respectfully into the great hall, and thence up the broad staircase to
the hall of reception above. And below, his gondoliers gossiped with the
servants, talking about the coming marriage, and many indiscreet things
were said, which it was better that their masters should not hear; as
for instance that Jacopo was really living in the house of the Agnus
Dei, where he kept a beautiful Georgian slave in unheard-of luxury, and
that this was a great grief to his father, who was therefore very
desirous of hastening the marriage with Marietta. The porter winked one
eye solemnly at the head gondolier, as who should imply that the
establishment at the Agnus Dei would not be given up for twenty
marriages; but the gondolier said boldly that if Jacopo did not change
his life after he had married Marietta, something would happen to him.
Upon this the porter inquired superciliously what, in the name of a
great many beings, celestial and infernal, could possibly happen to any
Contarini who chose to do as he pleased. The gondolier answered that
there were laws, the porter retorted that the laws were made for
glass-blowers but not for patricians, and the two might have come to
blows if they had not just then heard their masters' voices from the
landing of the great staircase; and of coarse it was far more important
to overhear all they could of the conversation than to quarrel about a
point of law.

Giovanni was too full of his plan for Zorzi's destruction to resist the
temptation of laying the whole case before Contarini, who was so soon to
be a member of the family, and as Jacopo, who was himself going out,
accompanied his guest downstairs, Giovanni continued to talk of the
matter earnestly, and Contarini