Since Marietta had defied him and
had gone to see Zorzi in the laboratory, he had not found what he
considered a convenient opportunity of speaking to her on the subject;
that is to say, he had lacked the moral courage to do so at all. But it
would need no courage to complain of her conduct to their father, and
though Beroviero's anger might fall chiefly upon Marietta, a portion of
it would take effect against Zorzi. It would be one more force acting in
the direction of his ruin.
Giovanni went away to his own glass-house, meditating all manner of evil
to his enemy, and as he reckoned up the chances of success, he began to
wonder how he could have been so weak as to offer Zorzi an enormous
bribe, instead of proceeding at once to his destruction.
Unconscious of his growing danger, Zorzi fed the fire of the furnace,
and then sat down at the table before the window, laid his crutches
beside him, and began to write out the details of his own experiments,
as the master had done for years. He wrote the rather elaborate
characters of the fifteenth century in a small but clear hand, very
unlike old Beroviero's. The window was open, and the light breeze blew
in, fanning his heated forehead; for the weather was growing hotter and
hotter, and the order had been given to let the main furnaces cool after
the following Saturday, as the workmen could not bear the heat many days
longer.
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