The narrator realises why Nicola and Jacopo work so hard. Yet he does not go r in to meet their sister nor does he speak to them about what he learns from the nurse. Working in groups, discuss the following aspects of the story and share your views with the class.
(a) The trust they place in the narrator.
(b) The reason the narrator does not disclose to them that he knows their secret.
(a) The narrator developed a soft corner in his heart for Nicola and Jacopo gradually as he met them every now and then, doing one job or the other. Their behaviour also impressed the writer. The boys also developed a fancy for him. But we find that Nicola did not trust him as much as Jacopo did. When the writer offered to do something for them, Nicola made a silent refusal by shaking his head. But Jacopo, the younger boy, at once requested him to give a lift to them in his car to Poleta, 30 kilometres from Verona, where they went every Sunday on hired bicycles. Nicola looked angrily at his brother and told the writer that they would not like to trouble him. He did not want that they should go to Poleta because his sister, Lucia, was recovering there from tuberculosis.
He did not want the writer to know about this because neither he wanted to have any financial help from any one nor to become an object of pity.
(b) The writer is an intelligent man. He has come to know by a discussion about the plans earlier with Nicola that the boys did not want to share their secret plans with him. His visit to Poleta, where Lucia, their sister, was hospitalised, made their secret plans very clear for which they were saving their hard-earned money. He knows fully well that their feelings will be deeply hurt if he discloses to them that he knows their secret.