Part 34 (1/2)
”You will not stay here, and let them arrest you!” cried Marietta anxiously.
”Your father left me here to take care of what belongs to him, and there is much that is valuable. I thank you very much for warning me, but I know what your brother means to do, and I shall not go away of my own accord. If he can have me taken off by force, he will come here alone and search the place. If he searches long enough, he may find what he wants.”
”Is Paolo G.o.di's ma.n.u.script in this room?” asked Marietta quietly.
Zorzi stared at her in surprise.
”How did you know that your father left it with me?” he asked.
”He would not have entrusted it to any one else. That is natural. My brother wants it. Is that the reason why you will not escape? Or is there any other?”
”That is the princ.i.p.al reason,” answered Zorzi. ”Another is that there is valuable gla.s.s here, which your brother would take.”
”Which he would steal,” said Marietta bitterly. ”But Pasquale can bury it in the garden after you are gone. The princ.i.p.al thing is the book. Give it to me. I will take care of it till my father comes back. Until then 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 gla.s.s, 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 att.i.tude 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 gla.s.s. I had to take the gla.s.s out bit by bit, and put it all back again.”
As Marietta looked at the jar, a little colour rose in her face again.
”Thank you,” she said. ”I know you trust me, now.”
”I always have,” he answered softly, ”and I always shall, even when you are married to Jacopo Contarini.”
”That is still far off. Let us not talk of it. You must get ready to leave this place before morning. You must take the skiff and get away to the mainland, if you can, for till my father comes you will not be safe in Venice.”
”I shall not go away,” said Zorzi firmly. ”They may not try to arrest me after all.”
”But they will, I know they will!” All her anxiety for him came back in a moment. ”You must go at once! Zorzi, to please me-for my sake-leave to-night!”