would take
it so literally--" he stopped short.

"Pray excuse me, sir. It is the first time I have ever heard you say
anything playful."

"Indeed! The fact is, my dear Zorzi, I never knew you well enough to
jest with you, till to-day. Paolo Godi's secrets in my keeping? I wish
they were! Oh, not that anything would induce me to break the seals. I
told you that. But I wish they were in my possession. I tell you, I
would pay down half my fortune to have them, for they would bring me
back four times as much within the year. Half my fortune! And I am not
poor, Zorzi."

"Half your fortune?" repeated Zorzi. "That is a large sum, I imagine.
Pray, sir, how much might half your fortune be, in round numbers? Ten
thousand silver lires?"

"Silver!" sneered Giovanni contemptuously.

"Gold, then?" suggested Zorzi, drawing him on.

"Gold? Well--possibly," admitted Giovanni with caution. "But of course I
was exaggerating. Ten thousand gold pounds would be too much, of course.
Say, five thousand."

"I thought you were richer than that," said Zorzi coolly.

"Do you mean that five thousand would not be enough to pay for the
manuscript?" asked Giovanni.

"The profits of glass-making are very large when one possesses a
valuable secret," said Zorzi. "Five thousand--" He paused, as though in
doubt, or as if making a mental calculation. Giovanni fell into the
trap.

"I would give six," he said, lowering his voice to a still more
confidential tone, and watching his companion eagerly.

"For six thousand gold lires," said Zorzi, smiling, "I am quite sure
that you could hire a ruffian to break in and cut the throat of the man
who has charge of the manuscript."

Giovanni's face fell, but he quickly assumed an expression of righteous
indignation.

"How can you dare to suggest that I would employ such means to rob my
father?" he cried.

"If it were your intention to rob your father, sir, I cannot see that it
would matter greatly what means you employed. But I was only jesting, as
you were when you said that you had the manuscript. I did not expect
that you would take literally what I said."

"I see, I see," answered Giovanni, accepting the means of escape Zorzi
offered him. "You were paying me back in my own coin! Well, well! It
served me right, after all. You have a ready wit."

"I thought that if my conversation were not as instructive as you had
hoped, I could at least try to make it amusing--light, gay, witty! I
trust you w