"This, then, for thine own madonna," said the artist pleasantly, tossing him a considerable coin. "And may she make thee wiser; for, by thine inventory, which it doth not harm thee to rehearse, thou hast a good memory."
"Eccellenza, there is more, if you be not weary. There is the government tax; it takes long to gather--ask the _gastaldo_! There are the soldiers for the navy; how many good men does that leave for the traghetto service? And a license is not little to buy for a poor barcariol who would be his own man; one pays three hundred _lire_--not less. Does it drop into one's hand with the first fare? One must belong to the Guilds--it is less robbery!"
"But for your gastaldo, your great man, for him it is much honor--"
"Eccellenza, believe it not. If the taxes are not there for the provveditori, it is the gastaldo who pays. When the money is little it is the gastaldo who pays much. And the toso--all his faults blamed on the traghetti! Ah, signore, for the gondolier it is a life--Santa Maria!" He threw up his hands with a feint of being at a loss to convey its hardships.
"_Come non c'è altro_!" said the Veronese, laughing; "there is none like it."
"Ebbene--va bene!" the gondolier confessed, joining heartily in the merriment, his grievance, which was nevertheless a real one, infinitely lessened by confession.
Suddenly the old man rose and bowed his head, and both gondoliers crossed themselves. The Veronese also bared his head and made the sign of reverence, for they were passing the island of San Michele, toward which a mournful procession of boats, each with its torch and its banner of black, was slowly gliding, while back over the water echoed the dirge from those sobbing cellos. Here, where only the dead were sleeping, the sky was as blue and the sea as calm as if sorrow had never been born in the world.
Before them Murano, low-lying, scattered, was close at hand, the smoke of its daily activities tremulous over it, dimming the beauty of sky and sea.
"His Excellency knows Murano? The Duomo, with its mosaics? Wonderful! there are none like them; and it is old--'ma antica'! And the stabilimenti?--it is glory enough for one island! Ah, the padrone wishes to visit the stabilimento Magagnati?"