look at the face near and to blow some specks
of dust off the forehead. Nanina thought this
a good opportunity of escaping from further
importunities. She was on the point of slipping
away to the door with a word of farewell
when a sudden exclamation from Luca
Lomi arrested her.

"Plaster! " cried the master-sculptor, looking
intently at that part of the hair of the
statue which lay lowest on the forehead.
"Plaster here! " He took out his penknife,
as he spoke, and removed a tiny morsel of
some white substance from an interstice
between two folds of the hair where it touched
the face. " It is plaster!" he exclaimed
excitedly. " Somebody has been taking a cast
from the face of my statue!"

He jumped off the stool, and looked all
round the studio with an expression of
suspicious inquiry.  I must have this cleared
up," he said. " My statues were left under
Rocco's care, and he is answerable if there
has been any stealing of casts from any one
of them. I must question him directly."

Nanina seeing that he took no notice of her,
felt that she might now easily effect her
retreat. She opened the studio door, and
repeated, for the twentieth time at least, that
she was sorry she could not sit to him.

"I am sorry too, child," he said, irritably
looking about for his hat. He found it,
apparently, just as Nanina was going out;
for she heard him call to one of the workmen
in the inner studio, and order the man to say,
if anybody wanted him, that he had gone to
Father Rocco's lodgings.

CHAPTER XI.

THE next morning, when Nanina arose, a
bad attack of headache, and a sense of
languor and depression, reminded her of the
necessity of following the doctor's advice,
and preserving her health by getting a little
fresh air and exercise. She had more than
two hours to spare before the usual time
when her daily attendance began at the
Ascoli palace; and she determined to employ
the interval of leisure in taking a morning
walk outside the town. La Biondella would
have been glad enough to go too, but she had
a large order for dinner-mats on hand, and
was obliged, for that day, to stop in the house
and work. Thus it happened, that when
Nanina set forth from home, the learned
poodle, Scarammuccia,was her only companion.

She took the nearest way out of the town;
the dog trotting along in his usual steady,
observant way, close at her side, pushing his
great rough muzzle, from time to time,
affectionately into her hand, and trying hard to
attract her attention, at intervals, by barking
and capering in front of her. He got but
little notice, however, for his pains. Nanina
was thinking again, of all that the physician
had said the day before, by Fabio's
bedside: and these thoughts brought with
them others, equally absorbing, that were
connected with the mysterious story of the
young nobleman's adventure with the Yellow
Mask. Thus preoccupied, she had
little attention left for the gambols of
the dog. Even the beauty of the morning
appealed to her in vain. She felt the
refreshment of the cool, fragrant air, but she
hardly noticed the lovely blue of the sky,
or the bright sunshine that gave a gaiety and
an interest to the commonest objects around
her.

After walking nearly an hour, she began
to feel tired, and looked about for a shady
place to rest in. Beyond and behind her
there was only the high road and the flat
country; but, by her side, stood a little
wooden building, half inn, half coffee-house,
backed by a large, shady pleasure-garden,
the gates of which stood invitingly open.
Some workmen in the garden were putting
up a stage for fireworks, but the place was
otherwise quiet and lonely enough. It was
only used at night as a sort of rustic
Ranelagh, to which the citizens of Pisa resorted
for pure air and amusement after the fatigues
of the day. Observing that there were
no visitors in the grounds, Nanina ventured
in, intending to take a quarter of an hour's
rest in the coolest place she could find, before
returning to Pisa.

She had passed the back of a wooden
summer-house in a secluded part of the
gardens, when she suddenly missed the dog
from her side; and, looking round after him,
saw that he was standing behind the
summer-house with his ears erect and his nose
to the ground, having evidently that instant
scented something that excited his suspicion.

Thinking it possible that he might be
meditating an attack on some unfortunate
cat, she turned to see what he was
watching. The carpenters engaged on the
firework stage, were, just then, hammering
at it violently. The noise prevented her
from hearing that Scarammuccia was
growling, but she could feel that he was,
the moment she laid her hand on his
back. Her curiosity was excited, and she
stooped down close to him, to look through,
the crack in the boards, before which he
stood, into the summer-house.

She was startled at seeing a lady and
gentleman sitting inside. The place she
was looking through was not high enough
up to enable her to see their faces; but
she recognised, or thought she recognised,
the pattern of the lady's dress, as one which
she had noticed in former days in the
Demoiselle Grifoni's show-room. Rising quickly,
her eye detected a hole in the boards about
the level of her own height, caused by a
knot having been forced out of the wood.
She looked through it to ascertain, without
being discovered, if the wearer of the
familiar dress was the person she had taken her
to be; and saw, not Brigida only, as she