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.