Now you will believe
me. But if all this is not enough to make you go, I have another plan,
which you cannot possibly oppose."
"What is that?" asked Zorzi.
"I will go alone. I will cross the bridge, and take the skiff, and row
myself over to Venice and from Venice I will get to the mainland."
"You could not row the skiff," objected Zorzi, amused at the idea. "You
would fall off, or upset her."
"Then I should drown," returned Marietta philosophically. "And you would
be sorry, whether you thought it was your fault or not. Is that true?"
"Yes."
"Very well. If you will not promise me faithfully to escape to the
mainland to-night, I swear to you by all that you and I believe in, and
most of all by our love for each other, that I will do what I said, and
run away from my father's house, to-night. But you will not let me go
alone, will you?"
"No!"
"There! You see! Of course you would not let me go alone, me, a poor
weak girl, who have never taken a step alone in my life, until to-night!
And they say that the world is so wicked! What would become of me if you
let me go away alone?"
"If I thought you meant to do that!"
He laughed again, and drew her to him, and would have kissed her; but
she held him back and looked at him earnestly.
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