Holmes watches appreciatively and deduces things about the glassblower's personal life until he's at a reasonable stopping point.

The glassblower dude is married to the fellow next door who does coppersmithing and he's thinking about making a successor soon since he's getting a bit old and is getting enough business that he could split his work.

"Hi! What can I do for you?"

"Hello! I'd like some flasks and pipes suitable for chemistry work . . ." he goes on to describe dimensions and quantities.

The glassblower takes this all down, nodding along, asking necessary clarifying questions, showing examples of various thicknesses he can do, and when he has the whole order written up says it'll be a decacycle but some pieces might take longer than that.

"Then I'll see you in a decacycle. Thank you! Oh, and one more thing; do you also make lenses?"

"I can, yes!"

"Oh, good!" He also wants some lenses of such and such dimensions; his explanation is a bit roundabout because he doesn't know their words for type and amount of curvature, but it's understandable.

The glassworker puzzles it out and writes everything down and expands Holmes's vocabulary and says this will add time, does he want the vessels or the lenses first?

Considerably fewer people smoke here than did in England, so his analyses of tobacco ash are less interesting than his work on soil compositions. "I'd like the vessels first, please."

"All right! I'll have an updated time estimate of anything that's not finished in a decawake."

"Very good. I'll see you then."

Any further purchases of housewares should wait until Watson is available, even though he knows exactly what the latter's opinions will be. Back to exploring the city!

It is as ever! Their neighbors are road maintenance proles, custodians, rugmakers, sailors, and crop processors.

Eventually it gets to be dinnertime; when Watson gets back from work Holmes is in their new sitting room, finishing off some food. 

"Good evening, Watson; I observe you enjoyed your second day of work."

"Yes, it was much like my first but with a slightly better grasp of the language."

A neighbor (one of the rugmakers) knocks on the door, holding a plate of cookies.

"Oh, hello!"

"Hello, welcome! I'm Jelani! I thought I'd bring you and your husband some cookies!"

Watson pinches the bridge of his nose. "We're not married, we're friends. But thanks all the same."

Jelani blinks at them. "Oh. I'm sorry. The cookies will still be tasty!"

"I'm sure they will be excellent." He holds out a hand. "So what do you do?"

"I make rugs! Do you need any rugs? Some people prefer plain wood floors."

Watson is aware of Holmes' impending acquisition of lab equipment and what it's likely to mean for their floor and anything on it. "Thank you, but we'll prefer the wood floor."

"All right. They also work as wall hangings but I always have to put those off till I don't have any floor rug orders in!"

"A wall hanging would be lovely if you have time." She'll probably forget, and if she doesn't, he will just not let Holmes shoot it full of holes. That's definitely a complete plan.

"What's your taste? You haven't had much chance to decorate yet."