On their return they had inquired for Paolo at the workshop, as Maria Luisa had explained, and Lucia had entered in the confident expectation of finding that the position of things had mended considerably since the early morning.

Moreover, since the announcement of the previous evening, the young girl had not seen her father alone.
She wanted to talk to him on her own account, in order to sound the depth of his determination.

She was not afraid of him.

The fact that for a long time he had regarded favourably the project of her marriage with Gianbattista had given her a confidence which was not to be destroyed in a moment, even by Marzio's strange conduct.

She passed through the outer rooms, nodding to the workmen, who touched their caps to the master's daughter.