n a low voice.

"Of course, if you will not agree to be conciliatory it is of no use for
you to come with me," said Don Paolo rather sadly. "Dear me! Here comes
Maria Luisa with Suntarella!"

"Ah, dear Paolo, dear Paolo!" cried the stout lady, puffing up the
stairs with the old woman close behind her. "How good you are! And what
did he say? We asked if you had gone at the workshop, and they said you
had, so Lucia went in to ask her father whether he would have the
chickens boiled or roasted. Well, well, tell me all about it. These
stairs! Suntarella, run up and open the door while I get my breath! Dear
Paolo, you are an angel of goodness!"

"Softly, Maria Luisa," answered the priest. "There is good and bad. He
has admitted that he will have to consider the matter because he cannot
make Lucia marry without her consent. But on the other hand--poor
Tista--" he looked at the young man and hesitated.

"He has turned me out," said Gianbattista. "He has given me an hour to
leave his house. I believe a good part of the hour has passed already--"

"And Tista says he will not go back at any price," put in Don Paolo. The
Signora Pandolfi gasped for breath.

"Oh! oh! I shall faint!" she sobbed, pressing the handle of her parasol
against her breast with both hands. "Oh, what shall we do? We are lost!
Paolo, your arm--I shall die!"

"Courage, courage, Maria Luisa," said the priest kindly. "We will find
a remedy. For the present Tista can come to my house. There is the
little room Where the man-servant sleeps, who is gone to see his sick
wife in the country. The Cardinal will not mind."

"But you are not going like tins?" cried the stout lady, grasping
Gianbattista's arm and looking into his face with an expression of
forlorn bewilderment. "You cannot go to-day--it is impossible,
Tista--your shirts are not even ironed! Oh dear I oh dear! And I had
anticipated a feast because I was sure that Marzio would see reason
before midday, and there are chickens for dinner--with rice, Tista, just
as you like them--oh, you cannot go, Tista, I cannot let you go!"

"Courage, Maria Luisa," exhorted Don Paolo. "It is not a question of
chickens."

"Dear Sora Luisa, you are too good," said Gianbattista. "Let us go
upstairs first, to begin with--you will catch cold here on the steps.
Come, come, courage, Sora Luisa!"

He took the good woman's arm and led her upwards. But Don Paolo stayed
behind. He believed it to be his duty to return to th