d up the phial.

"Why do you suppose that I made it?" Zorzi felt himself growing pale.
"The master has supplies of everything here in the laboratory and in the
little room where I sleep."

"Is there white glass here too?"

"Of course!" answered Zorzi readily. "There is half a jar of it in my
room. We keep it there so that the night boys may not steal it a little
at a time."

"I see," answered Giovanni. "That is very sensible."

He was firmly convinced that if he asked Zorzi any more direct question,
the answer would be a falsehood, and he applauded himself for stopping
at the point he had reached in his inquiries. For he was an experienced
glass-maker and was perfectly sure that the phial was not made from
Beroviero's ordinary glass. It followed that Zorzi had used the precious
book, and Giovanni inferred that the rest was a lucky accident.

"Will you sell me one of those beautiful things you have in the oven?"
Giovanni asked, in an insinuating tone.

Zorzi hesitated. The master had often paid him a fair price for objects
he had made, and which were used in Beroviero's house, as has been told.
Zorzi did not wish to irritate Giovanni by refusing, and after all,
there was no great difference between being paid by old Beroviero or by
his son. The fact that he worked in glass, which had been an open secret
among the workmen for a long time, was now no secret at all. The
question was rather as to his right, being Beroviero's trusted
assistant, to sell anything out of the house.

"Will you?" asked Giovanni, after waiting a few moments for an answer.

"I would rather wait until the master comes back," said Zorzi
doubtfully. "I am not quite sure about it."

"I will take all the responsibility," Giovanni answered cheerfully. "Am
I not free to come to my father's glass-house and buy a beaker or a dish
for myself, if I please? Of course I am. But there is no real difference
between buying from you, on one side of the garden, or from the furnace
on the other. Is there?"

"The difference is that in the one case you buy from the master and pay
him, but now you are offering to pay me, who am already well paid by him
for any work I may do."

"You are very scrupulous," said Giovanni in a disappointed tone. "Tell
me, does my father never give you anything for the things you make, and
which you say are in the house?"

"Oh yes," answered Zorzi promptly. "He always pays me for them."

"But that shows that he does not consid