Josef wanted to shout, “To my advantage! When have you been concerned with my advantage?” But something told him to remain still. He looked at his hands and pursed his lips. “They must want something,” he thought craftily. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so nice. Best to be quiet, then, and make them come out with it.

“Yes, a family conference,” Jonathan said.

Silence. Josef refused to speak. Elgren began, leaning forward earnestly. “With all good regards, still you broke our glass and you have no way to pay us for doing it. You can’t sell enough paintings now to pay for such expensive glass. And you owe us at least one family portrait, and a picture of the house, for your room and board these months. Instead, you work on other paintings that you, at least, take very seriously–”

“So? So?” Josef said impatiently. They were driving him mad with their politeness.

“What to do honorably was the question,” Elgren said. “Throwing you in jail was no answer, though we considered it, because then you’d never pay us and we’d never get our paintings done either. Not feeding you might make you so weak that there’d be no chance of payment for the glass. Putting you out of the house would let you go scot free. And so it occurred to us that you would like this thing settled also, so you knew where you stood.”

“Then you could go on painting without worry,” Jonathan said quickly.

Josef scowled. “So this idea of yours, whatever it is, is Jonathan’s? He’s that worried about my state of mind?” Josef said, thundering out.

Jonathan grinned, smugly.

Elgren spread his hands. “We have problems, like any family. You may be able to help us with one of them, and—”

“I just want to paint,” Josef interrupted. “Will you get to the point? Stop torturing me.”

“Bianka likes you,” Elgren said so quickly and flatly that Josef snapped forward. How much did Elgren and Jonathan know? Had the younger brother squealed? Josef felt his face turning red.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Elgren said. “She likes you. So that’s a fact that we have to take into consideration. There aren’t many young men around here. The farmhands are all right, but she thinks that you’re different; romantic, maybe. You know how women are.”

Josef didn’t dare say a thing. He didn’t like the smile on Jonathan’s face or the air of absolute earnestness on Elgren’s.

“It’s time for her to have a husband,” Jonathan said, now looking everywhere but at Josef.

“She thinks you would make her a good man,” Elgren added. “Now wait—she doesn’t like too many young men. The opportunities are limited around here. It would be different in the cities.”