"
She stood still a moment before him, still hesitating. She now saw that
he had suffered more than she had suspected, doubtless owing to Zorzi's
arrest and disappearance, and she knew that what she meant to tell him
would hurt him much more.
"Father," she began at last, with a great effort, "I know that what I am
going to say will displease you very, very much. I am sorry--I wish it
were not--"
Suddenly her set speech broke down. She fell on her knees and took his
hands, looking up beseechingly to his face.
"Forgive me!" she cried. "Oh, for God's sake forgive me! I cannot marry
Jacopo Contarini!"
Beroviero had not expected that. He sat upright in the chair, in his
amazement, and instinctively tried to draw his hands out of hers, but
she held them fast, gazing earnestly up to him. His look was not angry,
nor cold, nor did he even seem hurt. He was simply astonished beyond
all measure by the enormous audacity of what she said. As yet he did not
connect it with anything else.
"I think you must be mad!"
That was all he could find to say.
CHAPTER XX
Marietta shook her head. She still knelt at her father's feet, holding
his hands.
"I am not mad," she said. "I am in earnest. I cannot marry him. It is
impossible.
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