The old man was delighted to have an excuse for
going out, and promised himself to spend a comfortable hour in a wine
shop if he could find a friend. His wife, as there was so little to
do, had found some employment in a laundry, to which she went in the
morning and which kept her out all day. No one would see Sabina and
Sassi enter, and if it seemed advisable they could be got out in the
same way. No one but Masin and Malipieri himself need ever know that
they had been in the palace that afternoon.
It was all very well prepared, by a man well accustomed to
emergencies, and it was not easy to see how anything could go wrong.
Even allowing more time than was necessary, Sabina's visit to the
vaults could not possibly occupy much more than an hour.
CHAPTER XII
Malipieri was beginning to realize that his work in the vaults had
been watched with much more interest than he had supposed possible,
and that in some way or other news of his progress had reached various
quarters. In the first place, his reputation was much wider than he
knew, and many scholars and archaeologists throughout Europe had been
profoundly impressed both by what he had discovered and by the
learning he had shown in discussing his discoveries. It followed that
many were curious to see what he would do next, and there were
paragraphs about him in grave reviews, and flattering references to
him in speeches made at learned conventions.
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