should I marry?"

"Perhaps you will not," suggested Marzio, who was encouraged to continue
the negotiations, however, by the diminution in the lawyer's demands.

"Why not?" asked the latter sharply, "Do you think nobody else has
daughters?"'

"If it comes to that, why have you not married before?"

"Because I did not choose to marry," answered Carnesecchi, beginning to
walk more briskly, as though to push the matter to a conclusion.

Marzio said nothing in reply. He saw that his friend was pressing him,
and understood that, to do so, the lawyer must be anxious to marry
Lucia. The chiseller therefore feigned indifference, and was silent for
some minutes. At the foot of the steps of the Capitol he stopped again.

"You know, Sor Gasparo," he said, "the reason why I did not arrange
about Lucia's marriage a long time ago, was because I was not
particularly in a hurry to have her married at all. And I am not in a
hurry now, either. We shall have plenty of opportunities of discussing
the matter hereafter. Good-bye, Sor Gasparo. I have business up there,
and that client of yours is perhaps impatient about his millions."

"Good-bye," answered Carnesecchi. "There is plenty of time, as you say.
Perhaps we may meet this evening at the Falcone."

"Perhaps," said Marab drily, and turned away.