And now that it was all over—was it all over?—there lay the poor little Zuane; and Piero, over the water at his traghetto, was a great care. But he should do his best yet for the people!
A deep voice with a ring of wistfulness came through the darkness:
\"Doth he not sleep yet, the little Zuane? The evening hath been long, and I have somewhat to show thee.\"
\"I come, my father,\" she answered very tenderly, as she followed him through the narrow, dark corridor, into a large chamber which served as a private office, but where the father and daughter often sat alone in the evening; for here Girolamo kept many designs and papers relating to his work, and they often discussed his plans together.
He unlocked an old carved cabinet and brought out a roll of parchments, spreading them upon the table and explaining: \"I could not leave them while I went to call thee, for it is an order from the Senate—thou see''''st the seal—and a copy of the letter of the Ambassador of the Republic to the Levant, with this folded therein—truly a curious scheme of color, but very rich, and the lines are somewhat uneven. What thinkest thou of the design?\"
\"The outline is good,\" she answered, after a careful scrutiny, for she had been trained in copying his best designs. This was a pattern furnished by the grand vizier of the sultan for a mosque lamp of a peculiar shape, wrought over with verses from the Koran, in various colored enamels. \"The outline is well; but the colors—mayst thou not change this yellow? there is too much of it.\"
\"Nay, for the colors have a meaning; methinks this yellow is their sacred color. But the texts are fine; the broken lines of the characters have a charm, and the scrolls relieve the surface, making semblance of shadow. Yet I will make thee a prettier one for thine own chamber, with some thought of thy choosing.\"
She looked up at him with shining eyes; their trouble, combated and borne together, had brought them very near to one another.
\"I have often wished for a lamp with the colors soft like moonlight; and the design shall be of thine own hand, and the verse upon it shall be an ave, and in it there shall be always a light. It shall be a prayer for the little one!\" she said in quick response. \"The Senate wished thee to make a lamp of this design? I have seen none like it.\"
\"Nay, not one; there will be nine hundred, for the decoration of a mosque,\" and Girolamo''''s eyes sparkled with triumph. \"It is not that it is difficult,\" he explained, for Marina''''s eyes wandered from her father''''s face to the design with some astonishment. \"It is even simple for us. But when the Levant sends to Venice for these sacred lamps for her own temples it is her acknowledgment that we have surpassed our teachers. It is a glory for us!\"
\"Father, I thought the glass of Venice was even all our own!\" Marina exclaimed in a tone of disappointment. \"I knew not that our art had come from the East to us. Some say that it was born here.\"
\"Ay, some; but thou shouldst know the story of thy Venice better, my daughter,\" Girolamo answered gravely, for to him every detail connected with his art was of vital import. \"There may be some who say this, but not thou. In the time of Orseolo the mosaics were brought from the Levant for our old San Marco. Thus came the knowledge to us in those early days. But now there is no longer any country that shares it equally with Venice, for elsewhere they know not the art in its fineness. These, when they are finished, shall be sent as a gift from the Republic; it is so written in this order from the Senate.\"
\"When came it to thee?\"
\"To-day, with much ceremony, it was delivered into mine own hand by one of the Secretaries of the Ten. For, see''''st thou, Marina, it is a mark of rare favor that they have trusted this parchment with me, and have not brought me into their presence to make copy of it in the palace. If thou couldst lend me thy deft fingers——\"
\"Surely,\" she answered, smiling up at him.
He was standing over her with one hand on her shoulder; he rested the other lightly on her hair, looking down into her eyes for a moment with a caress still and tender, after his own grave fashion. \"It will be safer so,\" he said, folding the parchment and the letters carefully and locking them away in his cabinet. \"And to-morrow, Marina—for they have granted me but one day.\"
The chamber in which they sat was wainscoted with heavy carved woodwork stained black, and every panel was a drawer with a curiously wrought lock, containing some design or some order for the house of Magagnati; and these archives were precious not only for the stabilimento and Girolamo the master, but they would be treasured by the Republic as state papers, representing the highest attainment in this exquisite Venetian industry, which the Government held in such esteem that for a century past one of the chiefs of the Council of Ten had been appointed as inspector and supervisor of the manufactories. For further security the Senate had declared severest penalties against any betrayal of the secrets of the trade—a form of protection not quite needless, since the Ambassador of His Most Christian Majesty had formed a species of secret police with no other object than to bribe the glass-makers and extract from them the lucrative secret which formed no part of the courtesies that were interchanged between France and the Republic.
The large, low table, black and polished like teak-wood, upon which they had been examining the vizier''''s design, was lighted by a lamp of wrought iron swinging low by fanciful chains from the high ceiling, making a centre of dense yellow flame from which the shadows rayed off into the gloom of the farther portions of the room, and a charming picture of father and daughter was outlined against the vague darkness. Another lamp, fixed against a plate of burnished brass, cast a reflection that was almost brilliant upon the glory of this chamber—a high, central cabinet of the same dark, carved framework, with a back of those wonderful mirror plates so recently brought to perfection by another stabilimento of which the good Girolamo was almost jealous, although against this luminous background the exquisite fabrications of the house of Magagnati reflected their wonderful shapes and colors in increased beauty.