ed her hair. "I am sorry," he continued. "The fact
is, I am not a Georgian like you. I have been brought up among people of
civilisation, and I have scruples about killing any one. Besides, sweet
dove, if we were to kill the son of one of the Council of Ten, the
Council would pursue us wherever we went, for Venice is very powerful.
But the Ten will not lift a hand to revenge a good-for-nothing young
gamester whose slave has run away with her first love! Every one will
laugh at Contarini if he tries to get redress. It is better to laugh
than to be laughed at, it is better to be laughed at than to cry, it is
better to cry one's eyes blind than to be hanged."

Having delivered himself of these opinions Aristarchi began to look
about him for whatever might be worth the trouble of carrying off, and
Arisa collected all her jewels from the caskets in which they were kept,
and little bags of gold coins which she had hidden in different places.
She also lit a candle and brought Aristarchi to the small coffer in
which Contarini kept ready gold for play, and which was now more than
half full.

"The dowry of the glass-maker's daughter!" observed the Greek as he
carried it off.

There were small objects of gold and silver on the tables in the large
room, there was a dagger with a jewelled hilt, an illuminated mass book
in a chased silver case.

"You will need it on Sundays at sea," said Aristarchi.

"I cannot read," said the Georgian slave regretfully. "But it will be a
consolation to have the missal."

Aristarchi smiled and tossed the book upon the heap of things.

"It would be amusing to pay a visit to those young fools downstairs, and
to take all their money and leave them locked up for the night," he
said, as if a thought had struck him.

"There are too many of them," answered Arisa, laying her hand anxiously
upon his arm. "And they are all armed. Please do nothing so foolish."

"If they are all like Contarini, I do not mind twenty of them or so,"
laughed Aristarchi. "They must have more than a thousand gold ducats
amongst them. That would be worth taking."

"They are not all like Contarini," said Arisa. "There is Zuan Venier,
for instance."

"Zuan Venier? Is he one of them? I have heard of him. I should like to
see whether he could be frightened, for they say it is impossible."

Aristarchi scratched his head, pushing his shaggy hair forward over his
forehead, as he tried to think of an effectual scheme for produci