red Marietta.

"I wish I could find it."

"Take me with you," she said calmly.

Zorzi looked at her in dumb surprise, for she could not have said
anything which he had expected less.

"Listen to me," she continued. "You cannot stay here--or rather, you
shall not, for I will not let you. No, you need not smile and shake your
head, for I will find some means of making you go."

"You will find that hard, dear love, for that is the only thing I will
not do for you."

"Is it? We shall see. You are very brave, and you are very, very
obstinate, but you are not very sensible, for you are only a man, after
all. In the first place, do you imagine that even if Giovanni were to
spend a whole week in this room, he would think of looking for the box
amongst the broken glass?"

"No, I do not think he would," answered Zorzi. "That was sensible of me,
at all events." She laughed.

"Oh, you are clever enough! I never said that you were not that. I only
said that you had no sense. As for instance, since you are sure that my
brother cannot find the box, why do you wish to stay here?"

"I promised your father that I would. I will keep my promise, at all
costs."

"In which of two ways shall you be of more use to my father? If you hide
in a safe place till he comes home, and if you then come back to him and
help him as before? Or if you allow yourself to be thrown into prison,
and tried, and perhaps hanged or banished, for something you never did?
And if any harm comes to you, what do you think would become of me? Do
you see? I told you that you had no common sense. Now you will believe
me. But if all this is not enough to make you go, I have another plan,
which you cannot possibly oppose."

"What is that?" asked Zorzi.

"I will go alone. I will cross the bridge, and take the skiff, and row
myself over to Venice and from Venice I will get to the mainland."

"You could not row the skiff," objected Zorzi, amused at the idea. "You
would fall off, or upset her."

"Then I should drown," returned Marietta philosophically. "And you would
be sorry, whether you thought it was your fault or not. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Very well. If you will not promise me faithfully to escape to the
mainland to-night, I swear to you by all that you and I believe in, and
most of all by our love for each other, that I will do what I said, and
run away from my father's house, to-night. But you will not let me go
alone, will you?"

"No!"

"There!