Ortensia uttered a little cry and sat up in bed suddenly; but she could scarcely believe the news, till Pina had repeated all that the Senator had said. When she heard that the wall was to be crowned with broken glass, however, her face fell, for she saw in a flash of imagination how Stradella would climb up confidently in the dark and would cut his hand to the bone when he grasped the jagged points on the top.
'You must warn him!' cried Ortensia. 'You must go out and find him, and tell him not to come again!'
'I will find him,' answered Pina.
They had never spoken of Stradella before the night that was just past. Day after day, while the lessons were going on, Pina had left the two together, and Ortensia had silently accepted the nurse's conduct without understanding its cause; she was too proud to speak of it when they were together, or too shy, but she was sure from the first that Pina would stand by her, though it was the woman's sole business never to let her be out of her sight for a moment.
'And what shall I tell him?' Pina asked. 'What message shall he have from you? I will faithfully deliver your words.'
Ortensia covered her eyes with one hand, leaning on the other behind her, to steady herself as she sat up.
'Tell him that—that we must wait—and hope——'
'For what?' asked Pina bluntly. 'For the end of the world?'
Ortensia uncovered her eyes and looked up, surprised at the change of tone.
'Will you wait till you are the Senator's wife?' Pina asked, her grey eyes hardening suddenly. 'Will you hope that by that time the broken glass on the wall will have softened in the rain till it will not cut his hands? Or that you will be more free when you are married? You will not be. That is not the way in Venice. I am a serving-woman, and, besides, I am neither young nor pretty—I was once!—so I may go and come on your business and walk alone from the Piazza to Santa Maria dell' Orto. But you noble ladies, you are born in a cage, you live in bondage, and you die in prison! Will you wait? Will you hope? What for?'