"Poor fellow!" said Lucretia, "I pity you. You live with a perpetual dagger in your heart."
"And it will kill me unless you are loyal to your office, Lucretia. Promise me to watch this woman closely. Listen to me.—She may wish to go out, and if she does, it is quite natural that you, as well as I, should accompany her. Swear that wheresoever you may be together, you will not for one moment quit her side, or take your eyes off her person."
"For what do you take me. pray? Do you suppose that I attend the carnival to yawn at the side of your wife? or do you imagine that such eyes as mine were made for nothing better than to stare at a woman?"
"You will have as much opportunity as you can desire to use them to your own advantage, Lucretia, for Laura will not go out often."
"What will you give me in return for my self-denial?"
"If the carnival passes off without misadventure, I will buy you a splendid gondola, with two gondoliers dressed all in silk."
"Give them to me now, and if I neglect my duty, then take them back.
But do—do give them to me to use during the carnival."
"Very well, you shall have them to-morrow morning. And you swear that my wife shall neither give her hand nor speak to any man in Venice, and that you will report her very glances to me?"
"I swear to guard your golden apple like a good dragon. And to- morrow I shall join the great regatta," added she, clapping her hands like a petted child. "Now, Ottario, listen to me—I have just come from your wife's apartments with news for you."
"What is it?" gasped Strozzi, clutching at the arms of his chair.