"
"Master!" cried the faithful Stino, greatly troubled, for these
preparations filled him with dread, and were strange indeed for so old a
man who had never yet left Venice for a night. "Life is other than we
know it away from Venice; and the heart of us goes mourning for the
sight and sound of the sea and the color of our skies!"
"Nay, Stino, I have said it," his master answered, unmoved by his
imploring eyes.
"When goest thou--that all may be ready?"
"Now; ere the dawn!" Girolamo cried with sudden resolution. "I would say
my Ave Maria in the chapel of the Lady Marina. Rouse the gondolier, and
lift the curtain that I may see how soon the day cometh."
"Master, dear Master," said Stino tenderly, as he drew the heavy
draperies aside. "Already the sun is high, and the household hath been,
these many hours, awake."
"So!" Girolamo answered with deep gravity, for the battle had been
longer than he had dreamed, yet with his habitual control. "I knew not
the time--my thoughts held me. Stino, if I return not, may the saints
bless thee for all thou hast been to me since the Lady Marina hath dwelt
in the palazzo Giustiniani.
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