Marzio’s vanity suffered terribly, for he realised the wide difference that existed between his aims and the result actually produced.  For this reason he had determined to bring matters to a point of contention in his household, in order to assert once and for all the despotic authority which he believed to be his right.  He knew well enough that in proposing the marriage of Lucia with Carnesecchi, he had hit upon a plan which Paolo would oppose with all his might.  It seemed as though he could not have selected a question more certain to produce a hot contention.  He had brought forward his proposal boldly, and had not hesitated to make a most virulent personal attack on his brother when the latter had shown signs of opposition.  And yet, as he sat over his drawing board, staring at the clouds of smoke that rose from his pipe, he was unpleasantly conscious that he had not been altogether victorious, that he had not played the part of the despot to the end, as he had intended to do, that he had suddenly felt his inferiority to Paolo’s calmness, and that upon hearing of the proposition concerning the crucifix he had acted as though he had received a bribe to be quiet.  He bit his thin lips as he reflected that all the family must have supposed his silence from that moment to have been the effect of the important commission which Paolo had communicated to him; for it seemed impossible that they should understand the current of his thoughts.

As he glanced at the head he had drawn he understood himself better than others had understood him, for he saw on the corner of the paper the masterly sketch of an ideal Christ he had sought after for years without ever reaching it.  He knew that that ideal had presented itself to his mind at the very moment when Paolo had proposed the work to him—­the result perhaps, of the excitement under which he laboured at the moment.  From that instant he had been able to think of nothing.  He had been impelled to draw, and the expression of his thought had driven everything else out of his mind.  Paolo had gained a fancied victory by means of a fancied bribe.  Marzio determined to revenge himself for the unfair advantage his brother had then taken, by showing himself inflexible in his resolution concerning the marriage.  It was but a small satisfaction to have braved Gianbattista’s boyish threats, after having seemed to accept the bribe of a priest.

CHAPTER IV

On the following morning, Marzio left the house earlier than usual Gianbattista had not finished his black coffee, and was not in a humour to make advances to his master, after the scene of the previous evening.  So he did not move from the table when the chiseller left the room, nor did he make any remark upon the hour.  The door that led to the stairs had hardly closed after Marzio, when Lucia put her head into the room where Gianbattista was seated.

“He is gone,” said the young man; “come in, we can talk a few minutes.”