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This _maledetto_ fare of
the Madonna suffices for the Madonna's oil, I ask you? Ebbene non! There
are the fines--and these, it must be confessed, might be fewer, for the
saints are tired of keeping us out of mischief. And little there is for
one's own madonna, if one would make gifts!"
"This, then, for thine own madonna," said the artist pleasantly, tossing
him a considerable coin. "And may she make thee wiser; for, by thine
inventory, which it doth not harm thee to rehearse, thou hast a good
memory."
"Eccellenza, there is more, if you be not weary. There is the government
tax; it takes long to gather--ask the _gastaldo_! There are the soldiers
for the navy; how many good men does that leave for the traghetto
service? And a license is not little to buy for a poor barcariol who
would be his own man; one pays three hundred _lire_--not less. Does it
drop into one's hand with the first fare? One must belong to the
Guilds--it is less robbery!"
"But for your gastaldo, your great man, for him it is much honor--"
"Eccellenza, believe it not.


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