But if the government in its complicated labors had need of tools of
various tempers, it had also the wisdom to discern legitimate uses for
certain wild and lawless spirits when they were, like Piero, full of
daring and resource.
In the days when they had been dwellers under the same roof Piero had
never been able to disregard Marina's will, often as he had chafed under
the necessity of yielding to it; and now, since she was Lady of the
Giustiniani, it had not been otherwise in the rare instances when it had
pleased her to require anything of him. Yet it would have been
incongruous to charge Piero with over-sensitiveness on the side of
chivalry, though Marina's power over him was still as great as in those
old days when, being unable to shake himself free from her influence, he
had wished to marry her to make it less.
Piero was not introspective, but he doubtless knew that his ruling
passion was to achieve whatever purpose he might choose to set himself.
The Nicolotti knew it well when, a few months before, they had
unanimously elected him to rule over them--as their chief officers had
realized it when they had nominated him, without a dissenting voice, to
this position of gastaldo grande--a position of great honor fully
recognized by the government.
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