"Why do not you set up an establishment for yourself and live like a gentleman?" he asked at length. "You are rich--why do you go about on foot and dine in cafés?" "Do I ever dine at a café when you are dining alone?" "You have got used to living in restaurants in Paris," retorted his father. "It is a bad habit. What was the use of your mother leaving you a fortune, unless you will live in a proper fashion?" "I understand you very well," answered Giovanni, his dark eyes beginning to gleam. "You know all that is a pretence. I am the most home-staying man of your acquaintance. It is a mere pretence. You are going to talk about my marriage again." "And has any one a more natural right to insist upon your marriage than I have?" asked the elder man, hotly. "Leave the wine on the table, Pasquale--and the fruit--here. Give Don Giovanni his cheese. I will ring for the coffee--leave us." The butler and the footman left the room. "Has any one a more natural right, I ask?" repeated the Prince when they were alone. "No one but myself, I should say," answered Giovanni, bitterly. "Yourself--yourself indeed! What have you to say about it? This a family matter. Would you have Saracinesca sold, to be distributed piecemeal among a herd of dogs of starving relations you never heard of, merely because you are such a vagabond, such a Bohemian, such a break-neck, crazy good-for-nothing, that you will not take the trouble to accept one of all the women who rush into your arms?" "Your affectionate manner of speaking of your relatives is only surpassed by your good taste in describing the probabilities of my marriage," remarked Giovanni, scornfully. "And you say you never contradict me!" exclaimed the Prince, angrily. "If this is an instance, I can safely say so. Comment is not contradiction." "Do you mean to say you have not repeatedly refused to marry?" inquired old Saracinesca. "That would be untrue. I have refused, I do refuse, and I will refuse, just so long as it pleases me." "That is definite, at all events. You will go on refusing until you have broken your silly neck in imitating Englishmen, and then--good night Saracinesca! The last of the family will have come to a noble end!" "If the only use of my existence is to become the father of heirs to your titles, I do not care to enjoy them myself." "You will not enjoy them till my death, at all events. Did you ever reflect that I might marry again?" "If you please to do so, do not hesitate on my account. Madame Mayer will accept you as soon as me. Marry by all means, and may you have a numerous progeny; and may they all marry in their turn, the day they are twenty. I wish you joy." "You are intolerable, Giovanni. I should think you would have more respect for Donna Tullia--" "Than to call her Madame Mayer," interrupted Giovanni. "Than to suggest that she cares for nothing but a title and a fortune--"