of the great system."

"I do not understand the allegory," answered Gianbattista.

"It is as simple as roasted chestnuts," returned Marzio. "Even if I
liked you, it would be my duty to prevent you from marrying Lucia. As I
do not like you--you understand?"

"I understand that," replied the young man. "For some reason or other
you hate me. But, apart from the individual preferences, which you say
it is your duty to overcome, I do not see why you are morally obliged
to hinder our marriage, after having felt morally obliged to promote
it?"

"Because you are a traitor to the cause," cried Marzio, with sudden
fierceness. "Because you are a friend of Paolo. Is not that enough?"

"Poor Don Paolo seems to stick in your throat," observed Gianbattista.
"I do not see what he has done, except that he prevented me from killing
you last night!"

"Paolo! Paolo is a snake, a venomous viper! It is his business, his only
aim in life, to destroy my peace, to pervert my daughter from the
wholesome views I have tried to teach her, to turn you aside from the
narrow path of austere Italian virtue, to draw you away from following
in the footsteps of Brutus, of Cassius, of the great Romans, of me, your
teacher and master! That is all Paolo cares for, and it is enough--more
than enough! And he shall pay me for his presumptuous interference, the
villain!"