not to
respect a man who carries a fortune in his head and refuses to profit by
it out of a delicate sense of honour."

"I should have very little respect for a man who betrayed his master's
secrets," said Zorzi.

"You know them then?" inquired the other with unusual blandness.

"I did not say so." Zorzi looked at him coldly.

"Oh no! Even to admit it might not be discreet. But apart from Paolo
Godi's secrets, which my father has left sealed in my care--"

At this astounding falsehood Zorzi started and looked at Giovanni in
unfeigned surprise.

"--but which nothing would induce me to examine," continued Giovanni
with perfect coolness, "there must be many others of my father's own,
which you have learned by watching him. I respect you for your
discretion. Why did you start and look at me when I said that the
manuscript was in my keeping?"

The question was well put, suddenly and without warning, and Zorzi was
momentarily embarrassed to find an answer. Giovanni judged that his
surprise proved the truth of the boy's story, and his embarrassment now
added certainty to the proof. But Zorzi rarely lost his self-possession
when he had a secret to keep.

"If I seemed astonished," he said, "it may have been because you had
just given me the impression that the master did not trust you, and I
know how careful he is of the manuscript."

"You know more than that, my friend," said Giovanni in a playful tone.

Zorzi had now filled the crucible and was replacing the clay rings which
narrow the aperture of the 'bocca.' He plastered more wet clay upon
them, and it pleased Giovanni to see how well he knew every detail of
the art, from the simplest to the most difficult operations.

"Would anything you can think of induce you to leave my father?"
Giovanni asked, as he had received no answer to his last remark. "Of
course, I do not mean to speak of mere money, though few people quite
despise it."

"That may be understood in more than one way," answered Zorzi
cautiously. "In the first place, do you mean that if I left the master,
it would be to go to another master, or to set up as a master myself?"

"Let us say that you might go to another glass-house for a fixed time,
with the promise of then having a furnace of your own. How does that
strike you?"

"No one can give such a promise and keep it," said Zorzi, scraping the
wet clay from his hands with a blunt knife.

"But suppose that some one could," insisted Giovanni.