There was consternation in little Omobono's face the next morning when
he learnt that his master had gone out during the night, and had not
come home. The secretary would not believe it at first, and he went
himself to Zeno's bedroom and saw that the couch had not been slept
on; he could tell that easily, though it was not a bed but a narrow
divan covered with a carpet; for the two leathern pillows were not
disturbed, and the old dark red cloak which Zeno always used as a
covering was neatly folded in its place. It had been with him through
the long campaign in Greece, and he had the almost affectionate
associations with it which men of action often connect with objects
that have served them well in dangerous times.
Zeno had not slept at home, and he had changed his clothes before
going out. Questioned by Omobono, Vito could not say with any
certainty what the master had put on; in fact, he could not tell at
all. All the cloth hose and doublets and tunics were in their places
in the cedar wardrobes and chests of drawers, except those he had
taken off, which lay on a chair. It looked, said the servant, as if
the master had gone out without any clothes at all!
Omobono felt that if he had been a bigger man he would have boxed the
fellow's ears for the impertinent suggestion. But it was not quite
safe, for the man was a big Venetian gondolier and sailor. Besides, as
he went on to explain, the master had often gone down to the marble
steps at dawn for a plunge and a swim, with nothing but a sheet round
him, coming back to dress in his room. Perhaps he had done so now, and
perhaps----
The man stopped short. Perhaps Zeno was drowned. He looked at Omobono,
but the secretary shook his head, and pointed to the undisturbed
couch. Zeno would certainly not have gone out bathing before going to
bed. Neither of them thought of looking into the small military trunk
which stood in a dark corner, and from which Zeno had taken the
leathern jerkin and stout hose which he had put on for the expedition.
Omobono had, of course, already questioned the slave-girls. They told
what they knew, that the master had supped upstairs, and had dismissed
them. When they came back to the room he was gone, they said; and this
was true, since they had slept all night. The Kokóna was now asleep,
they added; but they did not say that she was sleeping dressed as she
had been on the previous evening, and looked very tired, for that was
none of the secretary's business.
Omobono went up and down the stairs almost as often that morning as on
the day of Zoë's first coming, and again and again he instructed Yulia
to call him when her mistress awoke. The answer was always the same:
the Kokóna was still asleep, and the secretary should be called as
soon as she rose. At last he began to think that she, too, had left
the house, and that the girls were in the secret, and he threatened to
go in and see for himself. To his surprise Yulia stood aside to let
him pass, laying one finger on her lips as a warning to make no noise;
for the little slave saw well enough that he suspected her of lying,
and she was afraid of him in Zeno's absence. Seeing that she did not
oppose him, he was convinced, and did not go in.
He would not send out messengers to ask for his master at the houses
of the Venetian merchants, or at their places of business, for he had
a true Italian's instinct to conceal from the outer world everything
that happens in the house. Yet he found himself in a dilemma; for Zeno
had invited Sebastian Polo, his wife and his daughter, and other
friends to dinner, and they would come, and be amazed to find that he
was not there to receive them. Yet if word were sent to them not to
come, Zeno might return in time and be justly angry; and then he would
call the poor secretary something worse than a cackling hen. It was a
terrible difficulty, and all the servants and slaves downstairs were
chattering about it like magpies, except when the secretary was just
passing. The cook sent to ask whether he was to prepare the dinner.
'Certainly,' answered Omobono. 'The master is no doubt gone out on
pressing business, and will be back in plenty of time to receive his
friends.'
He tried to speak calmly, poor man, but he was in a terrible stew.
Anxiety had brought out two round red spots on his grey cheeks; for
once his trim beard was almost ruffled, and his small round eyes were
haggard and bloodshot.
As the time for the arrival of the guests drew near, he felt his brain
reeling, and the rooms whirled round him, till he felt that the
universe was going raving mad, and that he was in the very centre of
it. Still Zoë slept, and still the master did not come.
At last there was but half an hour left. Omobono strained every nerve
he possessed, and determined to meet the tremendous difficulty in a
way that should elicit Zeno's admiration. He would receive the ladies
and gentlemen as major-duomo, he would make an excuse for his master,
he would instal them in their places at table, and would direct the
service. Of the cook and the cellar the little man felt quite sure,
and that was a great consolation in his extremity. If he gave Zeno's
friends of the best, and made a polite apology, and saw that nothing
went wrong, it would be impossible to ask more of him or to suggest
that he had failed in his duty. When the guests were gone he would go
to bed and have an attack of fever; of that he felt quite sure, but
then the terrible ordeal would be over, and it would be a relief to
lie on his back and feel very ill.
He retired and dressed himself in his best clothes. His cloth hose
were of a dark wine colour, but were now a little loose for his legs.
He looked at them affectionately as he examined them in the light.
They recalled many cheerful hours and some proud moments; they
remembered also the days when his little legs had not been so thin.
Yet by pulling them up almost to the tearing point they lost in width
what they gained in length, and made a very good appearance after all,
for he secured them by an ingenious contrivance of belt and string. It
was true that when he walked he felt as if he were being lifted from
the floor by the back of his waistband, but that only made him feel a
little taller than he was, and forced him to hold himself very
straight, which was a distinct advantage.
Now in all this trouble it never occurred to him that his master was
in any great danger or trouble, much less that he might have been
killed in some mad adventure. Carlo Zeno had lived through such
desperate perils again and again, that Omobono had formed the habit of
believing him to be indestructible, if not invulnerable, and sure to
fall on his feet whatever happened. The secretary only wished he would
not choose to disappear on the very day when he had asked five friends
to dine with him.
Omobono stood in his fine clean shirt and his wine-coloured hose,
combing and smoothing his beard carefully with the help of a little
mirror no bigger than the bottom of a tumbler. The glass was indeed so
small that he could only get an impression of his whole face by moving
the thing about, from his chin to his nose, from one cheek to the
other, and from his forehead to his thin throat, round which he
admired the neatly fitting line of the narrow linen collar. But this
last effort required a good deal of squinting, for the point of his
beard was in the way.
While he was thus engaged some one tapped at his door, and a small
voice informed him that Kokóna Arethusa was now awake, and wished to
see him instantly. Though the door was not opened by the speaker,
Omobono hastily laid down his glass and his comb, and struggled into
his tunic as if his life depended on his getting it on before he
answered; for he was a very modest man, and the voice was a girl's;
moreover, he was aware that the device of belt and strings by which
his hose were drawn up so very tightly must present a ridiculous
appearance until covered by his over-garment; then, however, the
effect would be excellent. So he got on his tunic as fast as he could,
and then answered with the calmness of perfectly restored dignity
through the closed door.
'Tell the Kokóna that I am at her service,' he said; 'and that I shall
be with her immediately.'
'Yes, sir,' said the small voice, and he heard the girl's retreating
footsteps immediately after she had spoken.
A few moments later he was going up the stairs as fast as the
tremendous tension of his hose would allow, and as he went he
reflected with satisfaction that as major-duomo he could not by any
possibility be called upon to sit down in the presence of his master's
guests.
One of the slave-girls ushered him into Zoë's presence. The latter was
seated on the edge of the divan, looking anxiously towards the door
when he entered, and for the first time since she had been in the
house he saw her face uncovered. It was very pale, and there were deep
shadows under her eyes. Her beautiful brown hair was in wild disorder,
too, and fell in a loosened tress upon one shoulder. The hand that
rested on the edge of the divan strained upon a fold of the delicate
silk carpet that covered the couch. She spoke as soon as Omobono
appeared.
'Have you heard from him?' she asked anxiously. 'Is he coming?'
It did not seem strange to the secretary that she should already know
of Zeno's absence, since no one in the house could think or talk of
anything else. On his part he was resolved to maintain the calm
dignity becoming to the major-duomo of a noble house.
'The master will doubtless come home when he has finished the urgent
business that called him away,' he answered. 'In his absence, it will
be my duty to make excuses to his guests----'
'Are they coming? Have you not sent them word to stay away?'
Omobono smiled in a sort of superiorly humble way.
'And what if the master should return just at the hour of dinner?' he
asked. 'What would he say if I had ventured to take upon myself such a
responsibility? The Kokóna does not know the master! Happily I have
been in his service too long not to understand my duty. If it pleases
him to come home, he will find that his friends have been entertained
as he desired. If he does not come, he will be glad to learn
afterwards that the proper excuses were offered to them for his
unavoidable absence, and that they were treated with the honour due to
their station.'
Zoë stared at the secretary, really amazed by his calmness, and
almost reassured by his evident belief in Zeno's safety. It was true
that he knew nothing of the facts, and had not seen his master hanging
by the end of a rope, fifty feet above the ground, within twelve
hours. It would have been hard to imagine Omobono's state of mind if
he had spent the night as Zoë had. But nevertheless his assurance
rested her, and restored a little of her confidence in Zeno's good
fortune. Of his courage and his strength she needed not to be
reminded; but she knew well enough that unless chance were in his
favour, he could never leave Blachernæ except to die.
'Do you really think he is safe?' Zoë asked, glad to hear the
reassuring words, even in her own voice.
'Of course, Kokóna----'
But at this moment the sound of oars in the water, and of several
voices talking together, came up through the open window from the
landing below.
All Omobono's excitement returned at the thought that he might not get
down the stairs in time to receive the guests at the marble steps just
as the boats came alongside. Without another word he turned and fled
precipitately.
Zoë had heard the voices too, and had understood; and, in spite of her
anxiety, a gentle smile at the secretary's nervousness flitted across
her tired face. The two slave-girls had run to the window to see who
was coming, and as they had always been told not to show themselves at
windows, they crouched down in the balcony and looked through the
open-work of marble which formed the parapet.
Zoë rose to cross the room. In the first rush of memory that came with
waking, she had almost forgotten that she had been hurt, and now she
bit her lip as the pain shot down her right side. But she smiled
almost instantly. She would rather have been hurt unawares by the man
she loved, than that he should not have touched her at the very moment
of going into danger. The memory of his crushing weight upon her for
that instant was something she would not part with. Women know what
that is. She thought how tenderly he would have stooped to kiss her,
if he had known that she was lying there under the canvas. Instead, he
had stepped upon her body; and it was almost better than a kiss, for
that would have left nothing of itself; but now each movement that
hurt her brought him close to her again.
She had received no real injury, but she limped as she walked to the
window. Then she stood still just within it, where she could not see
down to the steps below, but could talk with the slave-girls in a
whisper. Doubtless, since Zeno had not wished her to be seen, she
would not have shown herself; but she was quite conscious that she
looked ill and tired, and by no means fit to face a rival who had been
described to her as fresher than spring roses; so that the sacrifice
was, after all, not so great as it might have been.
'Tell me what you see,' she said to the maids.
Lucilla turned up her sallow little face.
'There are three,' she answered. 'There is a Venetian lord, and his
lady, and a young lady. At least, I suppose she is young.'
[Illustration: 'Tell me what you see,' she said to the maids.]
'I should think you could see that,' Zoë said.
'Her face is veiled,' Lucilla replied, after peering down; 'but I can
see her hair. It is red, and she has a great deal of it.'
'Red like Rustan's wife's hair?' asked Zoë.
'Oh no! It is red like a lady's; for it is well dyed with the good
khenna that comes from Alexandria. Now they are getting out--the old
lady first--she is fat--the secretary and her husband help her on each
side. She is all wrapped in a long green silk mantle embroidered with
red roses. She is like a dish of spinach in flames. How fat she is!'
Lucilla shook a little, as if she were laughing internally.
'What does her daughter wear?' asked Zoë.
'A dark purple cloak, with a broad silver trimming.'
'How hideous!' exclaimed Zoë, for no particular reason.
'The secretary bows to the ground,' Lucilla said. 'He is saying
something.'
She stopped speaking, and all three listened. Zoë could hear Omobono's
voice quite distinctly.
'By a most unfortunate circumstance,' he was saying, 'Messer Carlo
Zeno was obliged to go out on very urgent business, and has not yet
returned. I am his secretary and major-duomo, as your lordship may
deign to remember. In my master's absence I have the honour to welcome
his guests, and to wait upon them.'
Sebastian Polo said something in answer to this fine speech; but in a
low tone, and Zoë could not hear the words. Then a peculiarly
disagreeable woman's voice asked a question. Zoë thought it sounded
like something between the croaking of many frogs and the clucking of
an old hen. 'We hope you will give us our dinner, whatever happens,'
said the lady, who seemed to be of a practical turn of mind.
'Is that the girl's voice?' asked Zoë of Lucilla, in a whisper.
The maid shook her head.
'The mother,' she answered. 'Now they are going in. I cannot hear what
Omobono says, for he is leading the way. They are all gone.'
Zoë did not care who else came, and now that the moment was over she
was much less disturbed by the fact that Giustina was under the same
roof with her than she had expected to be. She did not believe that
Zeno had ever kissed Giustina, and he had certainly never stepped on
her.
She let her maids do what they would with her now, hardly noticing the
skill they showed in helping her to move, and in smoothing away the
pain she felt, as only the people of the East know how to do it. As
she did not speak to them they dared not ask her questions about the
master's absence. They had left him with her when they had been sent
away; they had slept till morning; when they awoke they had found Zoë
lying on the divan asleep in her clothes, and the master had gone out
of the house unseen and had not returned. That was as far as their
knowledge went; but they were sure that she knew everything, and they
hoped that if they pleased her even more than usual she would let fall
some words of explanation, as mistresses sometimes do when their
servants are particularly satisfactory. Most young women, when they
are in a good humour, let their maids know what they have been doing;
and as soon as they are cross the maids revenge themselves by telling
the other servants everything. In this way the balance of power is
maintained between the employer and the employed, like the hydrostatic
equilibrium in the human body, which cannot be destroyed without
bringing on a syncope.
But though Zoë felt very much less pain after Yulia and Lucilla had
bathed her and rubbed her, and had gently pulled at all her joints
till she felt supple and light again, she said nothing about Zeno; and
though they dressed her so skilfully that she could not help smiling
with pleasure when they showed her to herself in the large mirror they
held up between them, yet she only thanked them kindly, and gave them
each two spoonfuls of roseleaf preserve, which represented to them an
almost heavenly delight, as she well knew, and which she herself did
not at all despise. That was all, however; and they were a little
disappointed, because she did not condescend to talk to them about the
master's disappearance, which was the greatest event that had happened
since they had all three lived under Zeno's roof.
Meanwhile Omobono was playing his part of major-duomo downstairs, and
had installed the guests at the table set for them in the large hall
looking over the Golden Horn. After Polo and his wife, another
Venetian merchant had arrived, the rich old banker Marin Cornèr, long
established in Constantinople, and a friend of Sebastian Polo. The
fifth person invited did not appear, so that two seats were vacant,
the sixth being Zeno's own; and behind his high carved chair Omobono
installed himself, to direct the servants, quite an imposing figure in
his dark purple tunic and the handsome silver chain, which he had put
on to-day to indicate his high office in the establishment. Poor
Omobono! He little dreamt of what was in store for him that day.
The three older guests were moderately sorry that Zeno was not
present. In their several ways they were all a little afraid of their
eccentric countryman, about whom the most wild tales were told. Though
in truth he was extremely punctual in meeting his financial
engagements, both Sebastian Polo and Marin Cornèr had always felt a
little nervous about doing business with a young man who was known to
have kept an army at bay for a whole winter, who was reported to have
slain at least a hundred Turks with his own hand, and whose brown eyes
gleamed like a tiger's at the mere mention of a fight. It would be so
extremely awkward if, instead of meeting a bill that fell due, he
should appear at Cornèr's bank armed to the teeth and demand the
contents of the strong box. On the whole the two elderly merchants ate
with a better appetite in his absence.
But Giustina was inconsolable, and the good things did not appeal to
her, neither the fresh sturgeon's roe from the Black Sea, nor the
noble palamit, nor the delicate quails, nor even the roasted peacock,
whose magnificent tail rose out of a vast silver dish like a rainbow
with spots on it.
She was a big, sleepy creature with quantities of handsomely dyed
hair, as Lucilla had told Zoë. She had large and regular features, a
perfectly colourless white skin, and a discontented mouth. She often
turned her eyes to see what was going on, without turning her head at
all, as if she were too lazy to make even that small effort. Her hands
were well shaped, but heavy in the fingers, and they looked like new
marble, too white to be interesting, too cold to touch.
She was terribly disappointed and deeply offended by what seemed to
her a deliberate insult; for she did not believe a word of Omobono's
polite apology. The truth was that Zeno had only invited the party
because her mother had invited herself in the hope of bringing him to
the point of offering to marry Giustina. As a matter of fact nothing
had ever been farther from his thoughts. Sebastian Polo, urged by his
wife, had entered into the closest relations of business with Zeno,
and had again and again given him a share in transactions that had
been extraordinarily profitable. He had rendered it necessary for Zeno
to see him often, and had made it easy by his constant hospitality; in
these things lay the whole secret of Zeno's visits to his house. But
seeing that matters did not take a matrimonial direction as quickly as
she had expected, Polo's wife had adopted a course which she intended
to make decisive; she had asked herself and her daughter to dine with
Zeno. From this to hinting that he had compromised Giustina, and
thence to extracting an offer of marriage, would be easy steps,
familiar to every enterprising mother, since the beginning of the
matrimonial ages. And that was a long time ago--even before Solomon's
day, when the horseleech's two daughters cried, 'Give, give!' Zeno's
value as a possible husband lay less in his fortune than in his very
magnificent connections at home, and in the fact that the Emperor
Charles had been his godfather and afterwards his friend and patron.
Giustina understood her thoughtful parent's policy; she was therefore
unhappy, and would eat no peacock, a circumstance which greatly
distressed Omobono. Happily for him, the young woman's abstention was
fully compensated by the readiness of the elder guests to partake of
what she obstinately refused, even to something like repletion.
While they ate, they talked; that is to say, Sebastian Polo and Marin
Cornèr compared opinions on business matters such as the value of
Persian silks, Greek wines, and white slaves, without giving away to
each other the least thread of information that could be turned into
money. And Polo's wife, who had an eye to the main chance, croaked a
few words now and then, encouraging Cornèr to talk more freely of his
affairs; perhaps, thought she, he might betray the secret of his
wonderful success in obtaining from the Caucasus certain priceless
furs which no merchant but he had ever been able to get. But though
the fat dame lured him on to talk and made signs to have his glass
filled again and again with Chian wine, and though the colours of a
most beautiful sunset began to creep up his thin nose and his high
cheek bones, as the rich evening light climbs in the western sky,
Marin Cornèr's speech was as quiet and clear as ever, and what he said
was, if anything, a trifle more cautious than before.
And meanwhile Giustina stared across her empty plate at the boats on
the Golden Horn, and nursed her wrath against the man she wished to
marry.
'My child,' croaked her mother, 'we fully understand your
disappointment. But you should make an effort to be cheerful, if only
for the sake of Messer Marin Cornèr, your father's valued friend.'
'I beg you to excuse my dulness, Madam,' answered the daughter
dutifully, and with all the ceremony that children were taught to use
in addressing their parents. 'I shall endeavour to obey you.'
'Come, come, Donna Giustina!' cried Cornèr. 'We will drink your health
and happiness in this good----'
The sentence remained unfinished, and his lips did not close; as he
set down the untasted wine, his eyes fixed themselves on a point
between Omobono and Polo, and the sunset effects faded from his nose,
leaving a grey twilight behind.
The fat dame thought it was an apoplexy, and half rose from her seat;
but Giustina's eyes followed the direction of his look and she uttered
a cry of real fear. Sebastian Polo, who sat with his back to the sight
that terrified his daughter, gazed at the other three in astonishment.
But Omobono turned half round and gasped, and seized the back of
Zeno's empty chair, swinging it round on one of its legs till it was
between him and the vision.
Tocktamish stood there, grinning at the assembled company in a way to
terrify the stoutest heart amongst them. He was magnificently arrayed
in his full dress uniform of flaming yellow and gold, and his huge
round fur papakh was set well back on his shaggy head. His right hand
toyed amidst a perfect arsenal of weapons in his belt, and his
blood-shot eyes rolled frightfully as he looked from one guest to the
other, showing his shark's teeth as he grinned and grinned again.
It was certainly Tocktamish, the Tartar; and Tocktamish was not
perfectly sober. He was the more pleased by the impression his
appearance had produced. He at once came forward to the empty place of
the absent guest, which was next to Giustina's.
'I see that you have kept a place for me,' he said in barbarous Greek.
'That was very kind of you! And I am in time for the peacock, too!'
Thereupon he sat down in the chair, looked round the table, and
grinned again.
The fat lady collapsed in a fainting fit, the two elderly merchants
edged away from the board as far as they could, and Giustina uttered
another piercing shriek when the Tartar leered at her.
'Who is this person?' her father tried to ask with dignity, meaning
the question for Omobono.
But Omobono had vanished, and the servants had fled after him.