ion of these
little acts of familiarity by the immediate effect which they produced
on the girl's face and manner. Whenever Maddalena so much as touched the
young nobleman--no matter whether she did so by premeditation, or really
by accident--Nanina's features contracted, her pale cheeks grew paler,
she fidgeted on her chair, and her fingers nervously twisted and
untwisted the loose ends of the ribbon fastened round her waist.

"Jealous," thought Father Rocco; "I suspected it weeks ago."

He turned away, and gave his whole attention for a few minutes to the
mixing of the plaster. When he looked back again at the glass, he was
just in time to witness a little accident which suddenly changed the
relative positions of the three persons in the inner room.

He saw Maddalena take up a modeling tool which lay on a table near her,
and begin to help Fabio in altering the arrangement of the hair in his
bust. The young man watched what she was doing earnestly enough for a
few moments; then his attention wandered away to Nanina. She looked at
him reproachfully, and he answered by a sign which brought a smile to
her face directly. Maddalena surprised her at the instant of the change;
and, following the direction of her eyes, easily discovered at whom the
smile was directed. She darted a glance of contempt at Nanina, threw
down the modeling tool, and turned indignantly to the young sculptor,
who was affecting to be hard at work again.

"Signor Fabio," she said, "the next time you forget what is due to your
rank and yourself, warn me of it, if you please, beforehand, and I will
take care to leave the room." While speaking the last words, she passed
through the doorway. Father Rocco, bending abstractedly over his plaster
mixture, heard her continue to herself in a whisper, as she went by
him, "If I have any influence at all with my father, that impudent
beggar-girl shall be forbidden the studio."

"Jealousy on the other side," thought the priest. "Something must be
done at once, or this will end badly."

He looked again at the glass, and saw Fabio, after an instant of
hesitation, beckon to Nanina to approach him. She left her seat,
advanced half-way to his, then stopped. He stepped forward to meet her,
and, taking her by the hand, whispered earnestly in her ear. When he had
done, before dropping her hand, he touched her cheek with his lips, and
then helped her on with the little white mantilla which covered her head
and shoulders