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.