My daughter looks like a Minerva, and there she is
exactly as she looks."
"It is certainly a wonderful likeness," said Father Rocco,
approaching the statue.
"It the girl herself," cried the other. "Exactly her expression,
and exactly her features. Measure Maddalena, and measure Minerva,
and from forehead to chin, you won't find a hair-breadth of
difference between them."
"But how about the bust and arms of the figure, now the face is
done?" asked the priest, returning, as he spoke, to his own work.
"I may have the very model I want for them to-morrow. Little
Nanina has just given me the strangest message. What do you think
of a mysterious lady admirer who offers to sit for the bust and
arms of my Minerva?"
"Are you going to accept the offer?" inquired the priest.
"I am going to receive her to-morrow; and if I really find that
she is the same height as Maddalena, and has a bust and arms
worth modeling, of course I shall accept her offer; for she will
be the very sitter I have been looking after for weeks past. Who
can she be? That's the mystery I want to find out. Which do you
say, Rocco--an enthusiast or an adventuress?"
"I do not presume to say, for I have no means of knowing."
"Ah, there you are with your moderation again. Now, I do presume
to assert that she must be either one or the other--or she would
not have forbidden Nanina to say anything about her in answer to
all my first natural inquiries.
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