g to cut my throat last night,"
said Marzio, with a forced laugh. "It is the same thing. My life is as
valuable as Paolo's. I only suggested that you should transfer your
tender attentions from me to my brother."

"It is one thing to threaten a man to his face. It is quite another to
offer a man a serious inducement to commit murder. Since you have been
so very frank with me, Sor Marzio, I will confess that if the choice lay
between killing you, or killing Don Paolo, under the present
circumstances I would not hesitate a moment."

"And which would you--"

"Neither," replied the young man, with a cool laugh. "Don Paolo is too
good to be killed, and you are not good enough. Come and look at the
cherub's head I have made."

CHAPTER VI

Lucia's cheerfulness was not genuine, and any one possessing greater
penetration than her mother would have understood that she was, in
reality, more frightened than she was willing to show. The girl had a
large proportion of common sense, combined with a quicker perception
than the stout Signora Pandolfi. She did not think that she knew
anything about logic, and she had always shown a certain inconsistency
in her affection for Gianbattista, but she had nevertheless a very clear
idea of what was reasonable, a quality which is of immense value in
difficulties, though it is very often despised in every-day life by
people who believe themselves blessed by the inspirations of genius.

It seems very hard to make people of other nationalities understand that
the Italians of the present day are not an imaginative people. It is
nevertheless true, and it is only necessary to notice that they produce
few, if any, works of imagination. They have no writers of fiction, no
poets, few composers of merit and few artists who rank with those of
other nations. They possessed the creative faculty once; they have lost
it in our day, and it does not appear that they are likely to regain it.
On the other hand, the Italians are remarkable engineers, first-rate
mathematicians, clever, if unscrupulous, diplomatists. Though they
overrate their power and influence, they have shown a capacity for
organisation which is creditable on the whole. If they fail to obtain
the position they seek in Europe, their failure will have been due to
their inordinate vanity and over-governing, if I may coin the word,
rather than to an innate want of intelligence.

The qualities and defects of the Italian nation all exis