e place, do not flatter yourself that there will be anything for
you at my death, for I have already arranged matters so that there will
be nothing."

"Oh! as to that----" the young man began, with indifference.

"That is the score you would have to settle with me," the Marchesa
continued. "Then there would be a score to settle with God."

"How is that?" Franco questioned. "God shall come first with me, and you
afterwards!"

When the Marchesa was caught in a mistake she always talked straight on
as if nothing had happened.

"And it will be a heavy score," said she.

"But it must be settled first!" Franco insisted.

"Because," the formidable old woman continued, "a good Christian is in
duty bound to obey his father and his mother, and I represent both your
father and your mother."

If the one was obstinate, the other was no less so.

"But God comes first!" said he.

The Marchesa rang the bell and closed the conversation thus--

"Now we understand each other perfectly."

When Carlotta entered she rose from the sofa, and said, placidly--

"Good-night."

"Good-night," Franco answered, and resumed the _Milan Gazette_.

As soon as his grandmother had left the room he flung the paper aside,
clenched his fists, and giving vent to his anger in a sort of furious
snort, sprang to his feet, saying aloud--

"Ah! It is better so! Better, better so!" It was better so, he continued
to assure himself mutely. Better never to bring Luisa to this accursed
house, better never to oblige her to bear this rule, this arrogance,
this voice, this face! Better to live on bread and water, and look to
hard work for the rest, rather than to accept anything from his
grandmother's hand. Better become a gardener, d---- it! a boatman, or a
charcoal burner!

He went up to his room determined to break with all obligations. "A
score to settle with God!" he exclaimed, banging the door behind him. "A
score to settle with God if I marry Luisa! Ah! after all, what do I
care? Let them see me, spy upon me, bring her the news. Let them tell
her, let them sing it to her in every key. I shall be delighted!"

He dressed himself in feverish haste, knocking against the chairs, and
closing the drawers with a bang. In his recklessness he put on a black
suit, went noisily downstairs, called the old footman, told him he
should be out all night, and, not heeding the half-astonished,
half-terrified face of the poor fellow, who was devoted to him, rushed