“Yes—­of her father, without her father’s sense,” cried Marzio angrily.  “With her eyes, those fine eyes!—­those eyes!—­you want to marry her.  If you wish to take her away, you may, and good riddance.  I want no daughter; there are too many women in the world already.  They and the priests do all the harm between them, because the priests know how to think too well, and women never think at all.  I wish you good luck of your marriage and of your wife.  If you were my son you would never have thought of getting married.  The mere idea of it made you send your chisel through a cherub’s eye last week and cost an hoax’s time for repairing.  Is that the way to look at the great question of humanity?  Ah! if I were only a deputy in the Chambers, I would teach you the philosophy of all that rubbish!”

“I thought you said the other day that you would not have any deputies at all,” observed the apprentice, playing with his hammer.

“Such as these are—­no!  A few of them I would put into the acid bath, as I would a casting, to clean them before chiselling them down.  They might be good for something then.  You must begin by knocking down, boy, if you want to build up.  You must knock down everything, raze the existing system to the ground, and upon the place where it stood shall rise the mighty temple of immortal liberty.”

“And who will buy your chalices and monstrances under the new order of things?” inquired Gianbattista coldly.

“The foreign market,” returned Marzio.  “Italy shall be herself again, as she was in the days of Michael Angelo; of Leonardo, who died in the arms of a king; of Cellini, who shot a prince from the walls of Saint Angelo.  Italy shall be great, shall monopolise the trade, the art, the greatness of all creation!”

“A lucrative monopoly!” exclaimed the young man.

“Monopolies!  There shall be no monopolies!  The free artisan shall sell what he can make and buy what he pleases.  The priests shall be turned out in chain gangs and build roads for our convenience, and the superfluous females shall all be deported to the glorious colony of Massowah!  If I could but be absolute master of this country for a week I could do much.”

“I have no doubt of it,” answered Gianbattista, with a quiet smile.

“I should think not,” assented Marzio proudly; then catching sight of the expression on the young man’s face, he turned sharply upon him.  “You are mocking me, you good-for-nothing!” he cried angrily.  “You are laughing at me, at your master, you villain you wretch, you sickly hound, you priest-ridden worm!  It is intolerable!  It is the first time you have ever dared; do you think I am going to allow you to think for yourself after all the pains I have taken to educate you, to teach you my art, you ungrateful reptile?”

“If you were not such a great artist I would have left you long ago,” answered the apprentice.  “Besides, I believe in your principles.  It is your expression of them that makes me laugh now and then; I think you go too far sometimes!”