"An Englishman will do it when you are awake," said the earl.
"That's nice," said Miss O'Kelly; "run away home now, and get your beauty-sleep."
VI
During the following week the cardinal was so occupied with his poor that he nearly forgot his rich. He saw the yacht whenever he took his barca at the molo, and once, when he was crossing the Rialto, he caught a glimpse of Lady Nora and her aunt, coming up the canal in their gondola.
As for the earl, he haunted St. Mark's. Many times each day he went to the treasury only to find it locked. The sacristan could give him no comfort. "Perhaps to-morrow, my lord," he would say when the earl put his customary question; "it is the annual cleaning, and sometimes a jewel needs resetting, an embroidery to be repaired—all this takes time—perhaps to-morrow. Shall I uncover the Palo d'Oro, my Lord, or light up the alabaster column; they are both very fine?" And the earl would turn on his heel and leave the church, only to come back in an hour to repeat his question and receive his answer.
One day the earl spoke out—"Tommaso," he said, "you are not a rich man,
I take it?"
"My lord," replied Tommaso, "I am inordinately poor. Are you about to tempt me?"
The earl hesitated, blushed, and fumbled in his pocket. He drew out a handful of notes.
"Take these," he said, "and open the treasury."
"Alas, my lord," said Tommaso, "my virtue is but a battered thing, but I must keep it. I have no key."