That is coarse and mercenary, if you please;
but it is the true reason why I want to see Maddalena married to
Fabio. You want to see it, too--and for what reason, I should
like to know, if not for mine?"
"Of what use would wealthy relations be to me? What are people
with money--what is money itself--to a man who follows my
calling?"
"Money is something to everybody."
"Is it? When have you found that I have taken any account of it?
Give me money enough to buy my daily bread, and to pay for my
lodging and my coarse cassock, and though I may want much for the
poor, for myself I want no more. Then have you found me
mercenary? Do I not help you in this studio, for love of you and
of the art, without exacting so much as journeyman's wages? Have
I ever asked you for more than a few crowns to give away on
feast-days among my parishioners? Money! money for a man who may
be summoned to Rome to-morrow, who may be told to go at half an
hour's notice on a foreign mission that may take him to the ends
of the earth, and who would be ready to go the moment when he was
called on! Money to a man who has no wife, no children, no
interests outside the sacred circle of the Church! Brother, do
you see the dust and dirt and shapeless marble chips lying around
your statue there? Cover that floor instead with gold, and,
though the litter may have changed in color and form, in my eyes
it would be litter still.
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