"I should like the oratory to be beautiful!" Marina cried, clasping her
hands with sudden enthusiasm; "very beautiful--like a gift to the Holy
Mother!"
"And it shall bring a blessing on thy marriage," the Lady Laura answered
her.
So when the secretary and his young wife had returned to Venice and
their palace was thrown open to guests, the private chapel of the Lady
Marina was discovered to be a marvel of decoration--with superb Venetian
frescoes set in marvelous scrollwork by Vittoria, with carvings of
mother-of-pearl from Constantinople, with every sumptuous detail that
could be devised; for, during the three years of their absence, the Lady
Laura had not wearied of her gracious task nor stayed her hand. And into
this incongruous setting--costly, overloaded, composite, and destitute
of true religious feeling, a very type of the time in Venice--Marina
brought the redeeming note of consecration, a priceless altar--ancient,
earth-stained, and rude, almost grotesque in symbolism--as a great prize
and by special dispensation, from an underground chapel in Rome.
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