nk of in the present, so he dismissed it from his mind. He
wanted to be gone, and he only stayed a few minutes to see whether
Marzio's mind would change again. He knew his brother well, and he was
sure that no violence was to be feared from him, except in his speech.
Such scenes as he had just witnessed were not uncommon in the Pandolfi
household, and Don Paolo did not believe that any consequence was to be
expected after he had left the house. He only felt that Marzio had been
more than usually unreasonable, and that the artist could not possibly
mean seriously what he had proposed that evening.

The priest did not indeed think that Gianbattista was altogether good
enough for Lucia. The boy was occasionally a little wild in his speech,
and though he was too much in awe of Don Paolo to repeat before him any
of the opinions he had learned from his master, his manner showed
occasionally that he was inclined to take the side of the latter in most
questions that arose. But the habit of controlling his feelings in order
not to offend the man of the church, and especially in order not to hurt
Lucia's sensitive nature, had begun gradually to change and modify the
young man's character. From having been a devoted admirer of Marzio's
political creed and extreme free thought, Gianbattista had fallen, into
the way of asking questions of the chiseller, to see how he would answer
them; and the answers had not always satisfied him. Side by side with
his increasing skill in his art, which led him to compare himself with
his teacher, there had grown up in the apprentice the habit of comparing
himself with Marzio from the intellectual point of view as well as from
the artistic. The comparison did not appear to him advantageous to the
elder man, as he discovered, in his way of thinking, a lack of logic on
the one hand, and a love of frantic exaggeration on the other, which
tended to throw a doubt upon the whole system of ideas which had
produced these defects. The result was that the young man's mental
position was unbalanced, and he was inclined to return to a more normal
condition of thought. Don Paolo did not know all this, but he saw that
Gianbattista had grown more quiet during the last year, and he hoped
that his marriage with Lucia would complete the change. To see her
thrown into the arms of a man like Gasparo Carnesecchi was more than the
priest's affection for his niece could bear. He hardly believed that
Marzio would seriously