"There also--in the Consiglio--it shall be arranged, and all will be
well."
And where two were ready for the end that should be gained the pleading
was not over-long, though the thought was very strange for this simple
maiden of Murano; so the precious painting was finished and in the hands
of the decorators. And meanwhile, during those days when Marina had been
watching the flickering of the little Zuane's pale flame of life and
there had been no spare moments for Marcantonio, he had tried to absorb
himself, as far as possible, in the preparation of this gift--since she
would not let him go to her--and he had come to regard it as the symbol
of success; for failure was never for an instant contemplated in his
vision of the future. There were pearls to be selected, one by one, in
visits innumerable to the Fondaco dei Turchi, where the finest of such
treasures were not secured at a first asking, and in these his mother
was a connoisseur; but there were many more anxious visits to Murano, to
be assured that no step in the fashioning of his gift was endangering
its perfection.
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