"_Altro! Altro_!" said the master quietly. "She also shall look down
from the balconies in the palazzo Giustiniani."

But when the young patrician told her glowingly of his wish to give his
mother, on his great day, the most beautiful gift in all the world, it
was hard to make her yield.

"It is not fitting," she answered quite simply.

"Yes, yes, Marina--since I love thee!"

"Ah, no; it is only sad." Her eyes filled with tears and she moved away,
so that he could not touch her hand.

"Trust me, Marina! The Veronese knows the world, and he says it is well.
It is this that shall win the consent of my mother, and she will conquer
my father. And in the Gran' Consiglio----"

He turned his eyes suddenly away from Marina lest she should trace the
faintest flicker of a doubt within them, as the vision rose before him
of that imperious body, so relentless in its decrees, so tenacious in
its traditions, so positive in its autocracy; but the threatened
invincibility of this force only nerved him to a resistance as
invincible, and he turned back to her with a flashing face, almost
before she had noticed the interruption.

"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