She suddenly began to
imagine that old Beroviero, who was probably a magician and an
alchemist, had taught his daughter the same dangerous knowledge, and she
felt a sort of awe before the two young people who knew such a vast deal
which she herself could never know.
She asked herself what was to become of this wonderful girl, half woman
and half enchantress, who brought the colour of the saints' blood out of
the white flames, and understood as much as men did of the art which was
almost all made up of secrets. What would happen when she was the wife
of Jacopo Contarini, shut up in a splendid Venetian palace where there
were no glass furnaces to amuse her? At first she would grow pale,
thought Nella, but by and by would weave spells in her chamber which
would bring all Venice to her will, and turn it all to gold and precious
stones and red glass, and the people to fairies subject to her will, her
husband, the Council of Ten, even the Doge himself.
Nella roused herself, and passed her hand over her eyes, as if she were
waking from a dream. And indeed she had been dreaming, for she had
looked too long into the wonderful depths of the new colour, and it had
dazed her wits.
CHAPTER XII
On that day Marietta felt once more the full belief that Zorzi loved
her; but the certainty did not fill her with happiness as on that first
afternoon when she had seen him stoop to pick up the rose she had
dropped.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234