And perhaps you go; and when
you have eaten and drunk and it is the cool of the afternoon, you come
home. That is what Christians do. Who are they that meet at night? They
are thieves, or conspirators, or dice-players, or all three."
Pasquale happened to have been right in two guesses out of three, and
Zorzi thought it better to say nothing. There was no fear that the surly
old man would tell any one of the message; he had proved himself too
good a friend to Zorzi to do anything which could possibly bring him
into trouble, and Zorzi was willing to let him think what he pleased,
rather than run the smallest risk of betraying the society of which he
had been obliged to become a member. But he was curious to know why
Contarini kept such a singularly unprepossessing servant, and why, if he
chose to keep him, he made use of him to deliver invitations. The fellow
had the look of a born criminal; he was just such a man as Zorzi had
thought of when he had jestingly proposed to Giovanni to hire a
murderer. Indeed, the more Zorzi thought of his face, the more he was
inclined to doubt that the man came from Contarini at all.
But in this he was mistaken. The message was genuine, and moreover, so
far as Contarini and the society were concerned, the man was perfectly
trustworthy.
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