"He will talk a little, he will use some big words, and then it will be
finished. You see, it is not a great thing, after all. Take courage,
Maria Luisa, it will be a matter of half an hour."

"Heaven grant it may be only that!" murmured Marzio's wife, turning up
her eyes, and rising from her chair.

Lucia, who, as has been said, had a very keen appreciation of facts, did
not believe that things would go so smoothly.

"You had better come back with him to our house when it is all over,"
she said, "just to give us a sign that it is settled, you know, Uncle
Paolo."

Don Paolo himself had his doubts about the issue, although he put such a
brave face on it, and in spite of the Signora Pandolfi. That good lady
was by nature very sincere, but she always seemed to bring an irrelevant
and comic element into the proceedings.

The result of the interview was that, in half an hour, Don Paolo knocked
at the door of the workshop in the Via dei Falegnami, where Marzio and
Gianbattista were at work. The chiseller's voice bade him enter.

Don Paolo had not found much time to collect his thoughts before he
reached the scene of battle, but his opinion of the matter in hand was
well formed. He loved his niece, and he had begun to like Gianbattista.
He knew the lawyer, Carnesecchi, by reputation, and what he had heard of
him did not prejudice him in the man's favour. It would have been the
same had Marzio chosen any one else. In the priest's estimation,
Gianbattista had a right to expect the fulfilment of the many promises