“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 consider them as part of the work you are regularly paid to do, does it not?”

“I suppose so,” Zorzi said, turning over the question in his mind.

Giovanni took a small piece of gold from the purse he carried at his belt, and he laid it on the flat arm of the chair beside him, and put down one of his crooked forefingers upon it.

“I cannot see what objection you can have, in that case.  You know very well that young painters who work for masters help them, but are always allowed to sell anything they can paint in their leisure time.”

“Yes.  That is true.  I will take the money, sir, and you may choose any of the pieces you like.  When the master comes, I will tell him, and if I have no right to the price he shall keep it himself.”

“Do you really suppose that my father would be mean enough to take the money?” asked Giovanni, who would certainly have taken it himself under the circumstances.

“No.  He is very generous.  Nevertheless, I shall certainly tell him the whole story.”

“That is your affair.  I have nothing to say about it.  Here is the money, for which I will take the beaker I saw you finishing when I came in.  Is it enough?  Is it a fair price?”

“It is a very good price,” Zorzi answered.  “But there may be a piece among those in the oven which you will like better.  Will you not come to-morrow, when they are all annealed, and make your choice?”

“No.  I have fallen in love with the piece I saw you making.”

“Very well.  You shall have it, and many thanks.”

“Here is the money, and thanks to you,” said Giovanni, holding out the little piece of gold.

“You shall pay me when you take the beaker,” objected Zorzi.  “It may fly, or turn out badly.”

“No, no!” answered Giovanni, rising, and putting the money into Zorzi’s hand.  “If anything happens to it, I will take another.  I am afraid that you may change your mind, you see, and I am very anxious to have such a beautiful thing.”