en you must hide somewhere, for it is madness to stay here. Give me
the book, and let me take it away at once."

"I cannot give it to you," Zorzi said, with a puzzled expression which
Marietta did not understand.

"You do not trust me," she answered sadly.

He did not reply at once, for the words made no impression on him when
he heard them. He trusted her altogether, but there was a material
difficulty in the way. He remembered how long it had taken to hide the
iron box under broken glass, and he knew how long it would take to get
it out again. Marietta could not stay in the laboratory, late into the
night, and yet if she did not take the box with her now, she might not
be able to take it at all, since neither she nor Nella could have
carried it to the house by day, without being seen.

Marietta rested her elbow on the arm of the big chair, and her hand
supported her chin, in an attitude of thought, as she looked steadily at
Zorzi's face, and her own was grave and sad.

"You never trusted me," she said presently. "Yet I have been a good
friend to you, have I not?"

"A friend? Oh, much more than that!" Zorzi turned his eyes from her. "I
trust you with all my heart."

She shook her head incredulously.

"If you trusted me, you would do what I ask," she said. "I have risked
something to help you--perhaps to save your life--who knows? Do you know
what would happen if my brother found me here alone with you? I should
end my life in a convent. But if you will not save yourself, I might as
well not have come."

"I would give you the book if I could," answered Zorzi. "But I cannot.
It is hidden in such a way that it would take a long time to get it out.
That is the simple truth. Your father and I had buried it here under the
stones, but somehow your brother suspected that, and I have changed the
hiding-place. It took a whole morning to do it."

Still Marietta did not quite believe that he could not give it to her if
he chose. It seemed as if there must always be a shadow between them,
when they were together, always the beginning of a misunderstanding.

"Where is it?" she asked, after a moment's hesitation. "If you are in
earnest you will tell me."

"It is better that you should know, in case anything happens to me,"
answered Zorzi. "It is buried in that big jar, in some three feet of
broken glass. I had to take the glass out bit by bit, and put it all
back again."

As Marietta looked at the jar, a little colour