Alpha Book

"I repeat," he said, with a pleasant smile, "that it is hopeless to
defend all of what is actually done in our day in Rome. Some of your
friends and many of mine are building houses which even age and ruin
will never beautify. The only defensible part of the affair is the
political change which has brought about the necessity of building at
all, and upon that point I think that we may agree to differ. Do you not
think so, Don Orsino?"
"By all means," answered the young man, conscious that the proposal was
both just and fitting.
"And for the rest, both your friends and mine--for all I know, your own
family and certainly I myself--have enormous interests at stake. We may
at least agree to hope that none of us may be ruined."
"Certainly--though we have had nothing to do with the matter. Neither my
father nor my grandfather have entered into any such speculation."
"It is a pity," said Del Ferice thoughtfully.
"Why a pity?"
"On the one hand my instincts are basely commercial," Del Ferice
answered with a frank laugh.


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