she, too, would pay her debt to time in pounds of flesh. There are thin
people who look as though they could never grow stout, and there are
others whose leisurely motion and deliberate step foretells increase of
weight. But Gianbattista had not studied these matters of physiological
horoscopy. It sufficed him that Lucia Pandolfi was at present a very
pretty girl, even beautiful, according to some standards. Her thick
hair, low forehead, straight classic features, and severe mouth
fascinated the handsome apprentice, and the intimacy which had developed
between the two during the years of his residence under Marzio's roof,
from the time when Lucia was a little girl to the present day, had
rendered the transition from friendship to love almost imperceptible to
them both. Gianbattista was the last of the party to enter the lodging,
and as he paused to shut the door, Lucia was still lingering at the
threshold.

"Hist! They will see!" she protested under her breath.

"What do I care!" whispered the apprentice, as he kissed her cheek in
the dusky passage. Then they followed the rest.




CHAPTER II


That evening Marzio finished the last cherub's head on the ewer before
he left the shop. He had sent Gianbattista home, and had dismissed the
men who were working at a huge gilded grating ordered by a Roman prince
for a church he was decorating. Marzio worked on by the light of a