Marietta did not answer at once, but she idly picked a rose from the bush and put it to her lips to breathe in its freshness.
"Why should you think that I meant to insult you?" she asked gently.
"I am only a servant, after all," answered Zorzi, with unnecessary bitterness. "Why should you not insult your servants, if you please? It would be quite natural."
"Would it? Even if you were really a servant?"
"It seems quite natural to you that I should betray your father's confidence. I do not see much difference between taking it for granted that a man is a traitor and offering him money to act as one."
"No," said Marietta, smelling the rose from time to time as she spoke, "there is not much difference. But I did not mean to hurt your feelings."
"You did not realise that I could have any, I fancy," retorted Zorzi, still angry.
"Perhaps I did not understand that you would consider what my father was telling you in the same light as a secret of the art," said Marietta slowly, "nor that you would look upon what I meant to offer you as a bribe. The matter concerned me, did it not?"
"Your name was not spoken. I have fastened the branch. Is there anything else for me to do?"
"Have you no curiosity to know what I would have given you?" asked Marietta.