He
lifted it away gently, while his brother's back was turned,
carried it close to the table at which he had been at work, and
then resumed his employment of mixing the plaster. Having at last
prepared the composition for use, he laid it over the exposed
half of the statuette with a neatness and dexterity which showed
him to be a practiced hand at cast-taking. Just as he had covered
the necessary extent of surface, Luca turned round from his
statue.
"How are you getting on with the cast?" he asked. "Do you want
any help?"
"None, brother, I thank you," answered the priest. "Pray do not
disturb either yourself or your workmen on my account."
Luca turned again to the statue; and, at the same moment, Father
Rocco softly moved the cheval-glass toward the open doorway
between the two rooms, placing it at such an angle as to make it
reflect the figures of the persons in the smaller studio. He did
this with significant quickness and precision. It was evidently
not the first time he had used the glass for purposes of secret
observation.
Mechanically stirring the wet plaster round and round for the
second casting, the priest looked into the glass, and saw, as in
a picture, all that was going forward in the inner room.
Maddalena Lomi was standing behind the young nobleman, watching
the progress he made with his bust. Occasionally she took the
modeling tool out of his hand, and showed him, with her sweetest
smile, that she, too, as a sculptor's daughter, understood
something of the sculptor's art; and now and then, in the pauses
of the conversation, when her interest was especially intense in
Fabio's work, she suffered her hand to drop absently on his
shoulder, or stooped forward so close to him that her hair
mingled for a moment with his.
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