"If I did, that would not teach her things which I do not know myself!
Is it true that you have ordered the gown to be embroidered with
pearls?"
"You like pearls, do you not?" asked Beroviero with a little anxiety.
"You see!" cried Marietta triumphantly. "Nella knows all about it."
"I was going to tell you this morning," said her father in a tone of
annoyance. "By my faith, one can keep nothing secret! One cannot even
give you a surprise."
"Nella knows everything," returned the girl, sitting on the corner of
the table and looking from her father to Zorzi. "That must be why you
chose her for my serving-woman when I was a little girl. She knows all
that happens in the house by day and night, so that I sometimes think
she never sleeps."
Zorzi looked furtively towards the table, for he could not help hearing
all that was said.
"For instance," continued Marietta, watching him, "she knows that last
night some one unlocked the chain that moors the skiff, and rowed away
towards Venice."
To her surprise Zorzi showed no embarrassment. He had made up the fire
and now sat down at a little distance, on one of the flat arms of the
glass-blower's working-stool. His face was pale and quiet, and his eyes
did not avoid hers.
"If I caught any one using my boat without my leave, I would make him
pay dear," said Beroviero, but without anger, as if he were stating a
general truth.
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