"
"Persuade him! I never knew a man worth speaking to who could be
persuaded to anything he did not like. Make him--that is the way."
"But since he is behaving himself and is occupied--that is better than
the lives all these young fellows are leading."
"Do not argue with me, Giovanni, I hate it. Besides, your reason is
worth nothing at all. Did I spend my youth over accounts, in the society
of an architect? Did I put water in my wine and sit up like a model
little boy at my papa's table and spend my evenings in carrying my
mamma's fan? Nonsense! And yet all that was expected in my day, in a way
it is not expected now. Look at yourself. You are bad enough--dull
enough, I mean. Did you waste the best years of your life in counting
bricks and measuring mortar?"
"You say that you hate argument, and yet you are arguing. But Orsino
shall please himself, as I did, and in his own way. I will certainly not
interfere."
"Because you know you can do nothing with him!" retorted old Saracinesca
contemptuously.
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