been stolen."

"Have you looked in your own room?" inquired Marietta indifferently, and
turning her head on her pillow, as if she were tired of meeting Nella's
eyes, as indeed she was.

"My own room indeed!" cried the maid indignantly. "As if I did not know
what is in my own room! As if your new silk mantle could hide itself
amongst my four rags!"

Why Nella and her kind, to this day, use the number four in contempt,
rather than three or five, is a mystery of what one might call the
psychical side of the Italian language. Marietta did not answer.

"It has been stolen," Nella repeated, with gloomy emphasis. "I trust no
one in this house, since your brother and his wife have been here, with
their servants."

"My sister-in-law was obliged to bring one of her women," objected
Marietta.

"She need not have brought that sour-faced shrew, who walks about the
house all day repeating the rosary and poking her long nose into what
does not belong to her. But I am not afraid of the Signor Giovanni. I
will tell the housekeeper that your mantle has been stolen, and all the
women's belongings shall be searched before dinner, and we shall find
the mantle in that evil person's box."

"You must do nothing of the sort," answered Marietta in a tone of
authority.

She sat up in bed at last, and threw the thick braid of hair behind her,
as every woman does when her hair is down, if she means to assert
herself.

"Ah," cried Nella mockingly, "I see that you are content to lose your
best things without looking for them! Then let us throw everything out
of the window at once! We shall make a fine figure!"

"I will speak to my brother about it myself," said Marietta.

Indeed she thought it extremely likely that Giovanni would oblige her to
speak of it within an hour.

"You will only make trouble among the servants," she added.

"Oh, as you please!" snorted Nella discontentedly. "I only tell you that
I know who took it. That is all. Please to remember that I said so, when
it is too late. And as for trouble, there is not one of us in the house
who would not like to be searched for the sake of sending your
sister-in-law's maid to prison, where she belongs!"

"Nella," said Marietta, "I do not care a straw about the mantle. I want
you to do something very important. I am sure that Zorzi has been
arrested unjustly, and I do not believe that the Governor will keep him
in prison. Can you not get your friend the gondolier to go to the