you make it seem!" acclaimed the Signora Pandolfi,
reviving at his first words, like a tired horse when he sees the top of
the hill.

"But if papa should try and force me to it--what then?" asked Lucia, who
was not so easily satisfied.

"He cannot force you to it, my child--the law will not allow him to do
so. I told you so last night"

"But the law is so far off--and he is so violent" answered the young
girl.

"Never fear," said Don Paolo, reassuring her. "I will manage it all.
These will be a struggle, perhaps; but I will make him see reason. He
had been with his friends last night, and his mind was excited; he was
not himself. He will have thought differently of it this morning;"

"On the contrary," put in the Signora Pandolfi, "he waked me up at
daylight and gave me a quantity of money to go and buy Lucia's outfit.
And he will come home at midday and ask to see the things I have
brought, and so I thought perhaps we had better buy something just to
show him--half a dozen handkerchiefs--something to make a figure, you
understand?"

Don Paolo smiled, and Lucia looked sympathetically from him to her
mother.

"I am afraid that half a dozen handkerchiefs would have a bad effect,"
said the priest. "Either he would see that you are not in earnest, and
then he would be very angry, or else he would be deceived and would
think that you were really buying the outfit. In that case you would
have done harm. This thing must not go any further. The idea must be got
out of his head as soon as possible."

"But if I do nothing at all before dinner he will be furious--he will
cry out that we are all banded together against him--"

"So we are," said Don Paolo simply.

"Oh dear, oh dear!" moaned the Signora Pandolfi, looking for her
handkerchief in the anticipation of fresh tears.

"Do not cry, mamma. It is of no use," said Lucia.

"No, it is of no use to cry," assented the priest. "There is nothing to
be done but to go and face Marzio, and not leave him until he has
changed his mind. You are afraid to meet him at midday. I will go now to
the workshop and find him."

"Oh, you are an angel, Paolo!" cried Maria Luisa, regaining her
composure and replacing her handkerchief in her pocket. "Then we need
not buy anything? What a relief!"

"I told you Uncle Paolo would know what to do," said Lucia. "He is so
good--and so courageous. I would not like to face papa this morning.
Will you really go, Uncle Paolo?" The young girl