Oh! I could not bear it!" "Very well, we will try and find something near here," said Gianbattista, yielding the point.

"We will get a little apartment near the Minerva, where there is sun." "And we will have a terrace on the top of the house, with pots of carnations." "And red curtains on rings, that we can draw; it is such a pretty light when the sun shines through them." "And green wall paper with blue furniture," suggested Lucia.

"It is so gay." "Or perhaps the furniture of the same colour as the paper--you know they have it so in all fashionable houses." "Well, if it is really the fashion, I suppose we must," assented the girl rather regretfully.
"Yes, it is the fashion, my heart, and you must have everything in the fashion.

But I must be going," added the young man, rising from his seat.
"Already?
It is early, Tista--" she hesitated, "Dear Tista," she began again, her dark eyes resting anxiously on his face, "what will you say to him in the workshop?
You will tell him that I would rather die than marry Carnesecchi, that we are solemnly promised, that nothing shall part us! You will make him see reason, Tista, will you not?
I cannot go to him, or I would; and mamma, poor mamma, is so afraid of him when he is in his humours.

There are only you and Uncle Paolo to manage him; and after the way he insulted Uncle Paolo last night, it will be all the harder.