"But I should like to know why you have decided so suddenly.
What is the matter? What is to become of all our plans, and of
Contarini's marriage? Tell me quickly!"
"I have had a visit from an officer of the Ten to-day," he said. "The
Ten send me greeting, as it were, and their service, and kindly invite
me to leave Venice within twenty-four hours. As the Ten are the only
persons in Venice for whom I have the smallest respect, I shall show it
by accepting their invitation."
"But why? What have you done?"
"Of course it is not a serious matter to give a sound beating to an
officer of justice and six of his men," answered Aristarchi, "but it is
not the custom here, and they suspect me of having done it. To tell the
truth, I think I am hardly treated. I have sent Zorzi back to Murano,
and if the Ten have the sense to look for him where he has been living
for five years, they will find him at once, at work in that stifling
furnace-room. But I fancy that is too simple for them."
He told her how Pasquale had come in the morning, and how the officer
who had been in pursuit of him had searched the ship for Zorzi in vain.
The order to leave Venice had come an hour later. The anchors were now
up, and the vessel was riding to a kedge by a light hawser, well out in
the channel.
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