Then he carefully folded it up and laid it on the bench. His brows were
contracted as if he were in great pain, and his face was pale, but his
eyes were still angry.
Giovanni knew the signs of his father's wrath and dared not speak to him
yet..
"Is this the evidence on which you have had my man arrested?" asked
Beroviero, sitting down in the big chair and fixing his gaze on his son.
"By no means," answered Giovanni, with all the coolness he could
command. "If it pleases you to hear my story from the beginning I will
tell you all. If you do not hear all, you cannot possibly understand."
"I am listening," said old Beroviero, leaning back and laying his hands
on the broad wooden arms of the chair.
"I shall tell you everything, exactly as it happened," said Giovanni,
"and I swear that it is all true."
Beroviero reflected that in his experience this was usually the way in
which liars introduced their accounts of events. For truth is like a
work of genius: it carries conviction with it at once, and therefore
needs no recommendation, nor other artificial support.
"After you left," Giovanni continued, "I came here one morning, out of
pure friendliness to Zorzi, and as we talked I chanced to look at those
things on the shelf.
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