He was of a better temper than Marzio, who had been startled so terribly by a slight noise when his back was turned.

And yet he had been profoundly affected by the scene of the morning, and had not yet entirely recovered his serenity.
Lucia noticed the tone of his answer, and suspected that something had happened, though her suspicion took a direction exactly opposed to the fact.

She remembered what she had seen herself, and recalling the fact that Paolo had entered the workshop just as she was leaving it, she saw nothing unnatural in the supposition that her father's conversation with her uncle had taken a religious tone.

She used the word religion to express to herself what she meant.

She thought it quite possible that after Marzio had been so suddenly softened, and evidently affected, by her own fainting fit, and after having been absorbed in some sort of devotional meditation, he might have spoken of his feelings to Don Paolo, who in his turn would have seized the opportunity for working upon his brother's mind.