"Santa Maria!" Piero ejaculated after a pause, during which his wrath
had been growing. "The Consiglio hath its own matters for ruling; the
traghetti belong to the people!"
They had reached the little landing of the first long waterway of
Murano, where one of the low arcaded houses, with its slender shafts of
red Verona marble, was the dwelling of Girolamo Magagnati; the others of
this little block of three were used as show-rooms and offices for the
great establishment which was connected with them, in the rear, by small
courtyards; and the dense smoke of the glass factories always rested
over them, although this was the quarter of the aristocrats of Murano.
The buildings looked low and modest if measured by the palaces of the
greater city, and their massive marble door- and window-frames increased
the impression of gloom. But here and there a portal more ornate, with
treble-twisted cords deeply carved, or a window of fourteenth century
workmanship relieved the severity of the lines; while in this short
arcade, where the houses rose but a storey in height above the square
pillars which supported the overhanging fronts, these unexpected columns
of rosy marble, delicate and unique, on which the windows seemed to
rest, gave singular distinction to these dwellings.
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