“Yes,” answered Gianbattista, “I have heard you say so.”  He bent over his work, wondering what his master meant by this declaration of taste.  It seemed as though Marzio felt the awkwardness of the situation and was exerting himself to make conversation.  The idea was so strange that the apprentice could almost have laughed.  Marzio continued to soften the wax between his fingers, and to lay the pieces of it on the slate, pressing them roughly into the shape of a figure.

“Has Paolo been here?” asked the master after another long pause.

Gianbattista merely shook his head to express a negative.

“Then he will come,” continued Marzio.  “He will not leave me in peace all day, you may be sure.”

“What should he come for?  He never comes,” said the young man.

“He will be afraid that I will have Lucia married before supper time.  I know him—­and he knows me.”

“If he thinks that, he does not know you at all,” answered Gianbattista quietly.

“Indeed?” exclaimed Marzio, raising his voice to the ironical tone he usually affected when any one contradicted him.  “To-day, to-morrow, or the next day, what does it matter?  I told you last night that I had made up my mind.”

“And I told you that I had made up mine.”

“Oh yes—­boy’s threats!  I am not the man to be intimidated by that sort of thing.  Look here, Tista, I am in earnest.  I have considered this matter a long time; I have determined that I will not be browbeaten any longer by two women and a priest—­certainly not by you.  If things go on as they are going, I shall soon not be master in my own house.”

“You would be the only loser,” retorted Gianbattista.

“Have done with this, Tista!” exclaimed Marzio angrily.  “I am tired of your miserable jokes.  You have gone over to the enemy, you are Paolo’s man, and if I tolerate you here any longer it is merely because I have taught you something, and you are worth your wages.  As for the way I have treated you during all these years, I cannot imagine how I could have been such a fool.  I should think anybody might see through your hypocritical ways.”

“Go on,” said Gianbattista calmly.  “You know our bargain of last night”

“I will risk that.  If I see any signs of your amiable temper I will have you arrested for threatening my life.  I am not afraid of you, my boy, but I do not care to die just at present.  You have all had your way long enough, I mean to have mine now.”

“Let us talk reasonably, Sor Marzio.  You say we have had our way.  You talk as though you had been in slavery in your own house.  I do not think that is the opinion of your wife, nor of your daughter.  As for me, I have done nothing but execute your orders for years, and if I have learnt something, it has not been by trying to overrule you or by disregarding your advice.  Two years ago, you almost suggested to me that I should marry Lucia.