I have other news for Marzio--" "I imagine that you did not count upon the canonry as a means of pleasing him," remarked the Signora, Pandolfi, with a smile.
"No, indeed," laughed Lucia.

"Poor papa--he would rather see you sent to be a curate in Civita Lavinia!" "Dear me! I fear so," answered Don Paolo, with a shade of sadness.

"But I have a commission for him.

The Cardinal has ordered another crucifix, which he desires should be Marzio's masterpiece--silver, of course, and large.

It must be altogether the finest thing he has ever made, when it is finished." "I daresay he will be very much pleased," said Maria Luisa, smiling comfortably.
"I wish he could make the figure solid, cast and chiselled, instead of _repousse_," remarked Gianbattista, whose powerful hands craved heavy work by instinct.
"It would be a pity to waste so much silver; and besides, the effects are never so light," said Lucia, who, like most artists' daughters, knew something of her father's work.
"What is a little silver, more or less, to the Cardinal ?" asked Gianbattista, with a little scorn; but as he met the priest's eye his expression instantly became grave.
The apprentice was very young; he was not beyond that age at which, to certain natures, it seems a fine thing to be numbered among such men as Marzio's friends.