It was quite true
that Zorzi did all these things, and he did them with a silent
regularity that made him indispensable to his master, who scarcely
noticed the growing skill with which the young man helped him at every
turn, till he could be entrusted to perform the most delicate operations
in glass-working without any especial instructions. Intent upon artistic
matters, the old man was hardly aware, either, that Marietta had learned
much of his art; or if he realised the fact he felt a sort of jealous
satisfaction in the thought that she liked to be shut up with him for
hours at a time, quite out of sight of the world and altogether out of
harm's way. He fancied that she grew more like him from day to day, and
he flattered himself that he understood her. She and Zorzi were the only
beings in his world who never irritated him, now that he had them always
under his eye and command. It was natural that he should suppose himself
to be profoundly acquainted with their two natures, though he had never
taken the smallest pains to test this imaginary knowledge. Possibly, in
their different ways, they knew him better than he knew them.
The glass-house was guarded from outsiders as carefully as a nunnery,
and somewhat resembled a convent in having no windows so situated that
curious persons might see from without what went on inside.
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