"As you know nothing more of her, that is well said," rejoined Magnani; "but in that case will you explain to me why you nearly fainted when you kissed her hand?"
"Do you explain it to me, if you can; for my part, I have no idea. I knew that ladies had a way of using their eyes which was bolder than that of a courtesan, and at the same time more contemptuous than that of a nun. Yes, I had noticed that; and that blending of seduction and pride drove me wild when I happened, against my will, to touch elbows with any of them in a crowd. And that is why I hated great ladies. But this one has a glance which resembles no other woman's. I could not undertake to say whether it is voluptuous languor or good-humored torpor; but no woman ever looked at me so, and —— what can you expect, Magnani? I am young and impressionable, and it gave me the vertigo; that is all. I am not intoxicated with vanity, I swear, for I am perfectly certain that she would have looked at you in the same way if chance had placed your face before her instead of mine."
"I don't believe it," replied Magnani, pensively.
He had dropped his hammer and seated himself on a bench. He seemed to be struggling painfully to solve a problem.
"Ah! young men!" exclaimed old Pier-Angelo, as he passed them; "you are chattering and not working; only the old men know how to work fast."
Touched by the rebuke, Michel hastened to assist his father, after whispering to his new friend that they would resume their conversation later.
"Your best course," said Magnani, in an undertone, with a strange expression, "will be to think as little as possible about it."
Michel loved his father fervently, and with good reason. Pier-Angelo was a man of spirit, of courage, and of sound sense. An artist in his way, he followed the good old traditions in his work, and was not irritated by the innovations that he saw all about him. On the contrary, he very quickly assimilated such progressive ideas as he was made to understand. He was an easy-going, jovial mortal, optimistic in general, tolerant in particular cases, almost never ascribing evil intentions, but never paltering with them when it was no longer possible for him to entertain his generous illusions. A straightforward, simple, unselfish soul, content with little, entertained by everything, loving work for himself, and money for others, that is to say, living from day to day, and unable to deny his neighbor anything.
Providence had given the impulsive Michel the only guide he could ever have accepted; for that young man was entirely different from his father in several respects. He was restless, suspicious, slightly egotistical, with a decided tendency toward ambition, instability and anger. And yet his also was a noble nature, because it was sincerely in love with the noble and the great, and surrendered enthusiastically when its confidence was justified. But it is beyond question that his temperament was less happy than it might have been, that his active and inquisitive intellect often fed upon itself; and that his sensitive and excitable mind sometimes made a desperate onslaught on the tranquillity of his heart.
If a rough hand, the heavy hand of a mechanic desperately bent upon money-making, or subject to all the jealous indignation peculiar to the republican spirit, had undertaken to mould young Michel's mobile nature and discontented mind, it would have driven them to exasperation and would speedily have shattered or destroyed them. The improvident and cheerful temper of Pier-Angelo had acted as a counterpoise and sedative upon his passionate instincts. He rarely talked the language of cold reason to him, and never thwarted his fickle inclinations. But the fearless heedlessness of certain natures has a sympathetic effect which makes us blush for our weaknesses, and acts upon us more powerfully by example, by precepts nobly and simply put in execution, than all the speeches and sermons in the world could do. It was by this means that Pier-Angelo, while seeming to accede to Michel's desires and caprices, still exerted the only ascendancy to which he could have been induced to submit.