“There is no more to it than that?” Fra Paolo questioned.

“Nay, no more, my brother,” Fra Francesco answered with conviction.

“The name then?” said Fra Paolo; and when it had been told him he recognized the man as one in whom trust was misplaced, and one who intrigued for power.

“The charge?” he asked again.  And when he had patiently learned the details of which Fra Giulio’s long and faithful service gave little hint, he gathered evidence wherewith to refute them, and journeyed swiftly back to Rome, returning, triumphant, to reinstate the good old friar with honor in the home and offices he loved—­the manner of his return making amends to Fra Giulio for the pain he had suffered, so sweet it seemed to him to owe to this son of his affections all the gladness of his later days.

VIII

While the little Zuane was failing, Marcantonio, seeing Marina but seldom, solaced himself in preparing a royal gift to offer to his mother on the occasion of his own birthday fete.  The idea had come to him that night after the Veronese had touched his own faulty sketch into such rounded life; besides, he had thought but one beautiful thought since he had, as it were, been unconsciously brought to confession by that scene in the studio.  And Paolo Cagliari had been most kind in accepting his commission with an enthusiasm which promised wonderful results.  Great as was his fame in those days,—­and the Veronese never lived beyond his fame,—­still, as in his earlier years, he was eager for any new method of proving the genius in which his own faith was as unbounded as his capacity to achieve was vigorous and tireless.  And the young noble’s unique fancy for a superb goblet of crystal da Beroviero, with a miniature of Marina of Murano enlaced in exquisite gold borders and set round with costly pearls—­a trifle fit to offer to a princess—­not only pleased the artist’s well-known taste for luxury, but seemed to him an object worthy of his skill.  In the kindness of his heart he would make the lovely face so winning that the great lady should yield to the prayer that had prompted the gift.

Among all the elaborate gift-pieces that had come from the workshops of Murano, but one had as yet approached this, and it had been sent with the homage of the Senate, by a retiring ambassador of “His Most Christian Majesty,” to the Queen of France, and it bore, from Titian’s hand, the portrait of her royal husband.  This goblet, then, must surpass that one in magnificence, for it was the Veronese’s opportunity; and in his soul, genial as it was, some sense of rivalry, born of Titian’s assumption of the highest place in Venetian art, would last forever, in spite of the great master’s manifest affection.  The suggestion of the pearls—­an added touch—­was indeed due to Paolo Cagliari’s over-weening sumptuousness, and the eager young lover was scarcely more anxious for the completion of this gem, upon which his hope depended, than was the great artist who already had all Venice at his feet.