"Whatever you may think that you have learned from me," he said,
"remember that I have told you nothing."
"Is it here, in this room?" asked Giovanni, not heeding his last speech,
and hoping to surprise him again.
But he was prepared now, and his face did not change as he replied.
"I cannot answer any questions," he said.
"You and my father hid it together," returned Giovanni. "When you had
buried it under the stones in this room, you carried the earth out with
a shovel and scattered it about on a flower-bed. You took out three
shovelfuls of earth in that way. You see, I know everything. What is the
use of trying to hide your secret from me?"
Zorzi was now convinced that Giovanni himself had been lurking in the
garden.
"Sir," he said, with ill-concealed contempt for a man capable of such
spy's work, "if you have more to say of the same nature, pray say it to
your father, when he comes back."
"You misunderstand me," returned Giovanni with sudden mildness. "I had
no intention of offending you. I only meant to warn you that you were
watched on that night. The person who informed me has no doubt told many
others also. It would have been very ill for you, if my father had
returned to find that his secret was public property, and if you had
been unable to explain that you had not betrayed him.
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