The third section described the priest's share in promoting the
marriage of Maddalena Lomi with Fabio; and the hopes he
entertained of securing the restitution of the Church property
through his influence over his niece, in the first place, and,
when she had died, through his influence over her child, in the
second. The necessary failure of all his projects, if Fabio
married again, was next glanced at; and the time at which the
first suspicion of the possible occurrence of this catastrophe
occurred to his mind was noted with scrupulous accuracy.
The fourth section narrated the manner in which the conspiracy of
the Yellow Mask had originated. The writer described himself as
being in his brother's studio on the night of his niece's death,
harassed by forebodings of the likelihood of Fabio's marrying
again, and filled with the resolution to prevent any such
disastrous second union at all hazards. He asserted that the idea
of taking the wax mask from his brother's statue flashed upon him
on a sudden, and that he knew of nothing to lead to it, except,
perhaps, that he had been thinking just before of the
superstitious nature of the young man's character, as he had
himself observed it in the studio. He further declared that the
idea of the wax mask terrified him at first; that he strove
against it as against a temptation of the devil; that, from fear
of yielding to this temptation, he abstained even from entering
the studio during his brother's absence at Naples, and that he
first faltered in his good resolution when Fabio returned to
Pisa, and when it was rumored, not only that the young nobleman
was going to the ball, but that he would certainly marry for the
second time.
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