t?"

Pasquale gave signs of great satisfaction, by growling and grinning at
the same time, and his lids drew themselves into a hundred wrinkles till
his eyes seemed no bigger than two red Murano beads.

Then Beroviero and Marietta went back to the house, and the young girl
carried the folded mantle under her cloak. Before going to her own room
she opened it out, as if it had been worn, and dropped it behind a
bench-box in the large room, as if it had fallen from her shoulders
while she had been sitting there; and in due time it was found by one of
the men-servants, who brought it back to Nella.

"You are so careless, my pretty lady!" cried the serving-woman, holding
up her hands.

"Yes," answered Marietta, "I know it."

"So careless!" repeated Nella. "Nothing has any value for you! Some day
you will forget your face in the mirror and go away without it, and then
they will say it is Nella's fault!"

Marietta laughed lightly, for she was happy. It was clear that
everything was to end well, though it might be long before her father
would consent to let her marry Zorzi. She felt quite sure that he was
safe, though he might lie far away by this time.

Beroviero returned at once to the Governor's house, and did his best to
undo the mischief. But to his unspeakable disappointment he found that
the Governor's report had already gone to the Council of Ten, so that
the matter had passed altogether out of his hands. The Council would
certainly find Zorzi, if he were in Venice, and within two or three
days, at the utmost, if not within a few hours; for the Signors of the
Night were very vigilant and their men knew every hiding-place in
Venice. Zorzi, said the Governor, would certainly be taken into custody
unless he had escaped to the mainland. Beroviero could have wrung his
hands for sheer despair, and when he told Marietta the result of his
second visit to the Governor, her heart sank, for Zorzi's danger was
greater than ever before, and it was not likely that a man who had been
so mysteriously rescued, to the manifest injury and disgrace of those
who were taking him to prison, could escape torture. He would certainly
be suspected of connivance with secret enemies of the Republic.

Beroviero bethought him of the friends he had in Venice, to whom he
might apply for help in his difficulty. In the first place there was
Messer Luigi Foscarini, a Procurator of Saint Mark; but he had not been
long in office, and he would proba