"Will you tell the Signor Giovanni that his father is
coming home?"
Pasquale grinned again. He was rarely in such a pleasant humour.
"Certainly not," he answered. "The Signor Giovanni is very busy, and has
given strict orders that he is not to be disturbed on any account."
"That is your affair," said the gondolier, hurrying away.
CHAPTER XIX
A little more than an hour later, the gondola came back and stopped
alongside the steps of the house. The gondolier had made such haste to
obey the summons that he had not thought of going into the house to give
the servants warning, and as most of the shutters were already drawn
together against the heat, no one had been looking out when he went
away. He had asked Pasquale to tell the young master, and that was all
that could be expected of him. There was therefore great surprise in the
household when Angelo Beroviero went up the steps of his house, and his
own astonishment that no one should be there to receive him was almost
as great. The gondolier explained, and told him what Pasquale had said.
It was enough to rouse the old man's suspicions at once. He had left
Zorzi in charge of the laboratory, enjoining upon him not to encourage
Giovanni to go there; but now Giovanni was shut up there, presumably
with Zorzi, and had given orders that he was not to be disturbed.
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