in search of information, and
paused before answering.

"The work needs careful attention," he said at last.

"Most glass-work does," observed Giovanni, with a harsh little laugh.
"Are you very attentive, then? Do you remember to do all that my father
told you?"

"The master only left this morning. So far, I have obeyed his orders."

"I do not understand how a man who is not a glass-blower can know enough
to be left alone in charge of a furnace," said Giovanni, looking at
Zorzi's profile.

This time Zorzi was silent. He did not think it necessary to tell how
much he knew.

"I suppose my father knows what he is about," continued Giovanni, in a
tone of disapproval.

Zorzi thought so too, and no reply seemed necessary. He stood still,
looking out of the window, and wishing that his visitor would go away.
But Giovanni had no such intention.

"What are you making?" he asked presently.

"A certain kind of glass," Zorzi answered.

"A new colour?"

"A certain colour. That is all I can tell you."

"You can tell me what colour it is," said Giovanni. "Why are you so
secret? Even if my father had ordered you to be silent with me about his
work, which I do not believe, you would not be betraying anything by
telling me that. What colour is he trying to make?"

"I am to say nothing about it, not even to you. I obey my orders."

Giovanni was a glass-maker himself. He rose with an air of annoyance and
crossed the laboratory to the jar in which the broken glass was kept,
took out a piece and held it up against the light. Zorzi had made a
movement as if to hinder him, but he realised at once that he could not
lay hands on his master's son. Giovanni laughed contemptuously and threw
the fragment back into the jar.

"Is that all? I can do better than that myself!" he said, and he sat
down again in the big chair.

His eyes fell on the shelves upon which Zorzi's specimens of work were
arranged. He looked at them with interest, at once understanding their
commercial value.

"My father can make good things when he is not wasting time over
discoveries," he remarked, and rising again he went nearer and began to
examine the little objects.

Zorzi said nothing, and after looking at them a long time Giovanni
turned away and stood before the furnace. The copper ladle with which
the specimens were taken from the pots lay on the brick ledge near one
of the 'boccas.' Giovanni took it, looked round to see where the iron
plate for