Her figure was lithe, though she was not a very active girl, and one might have predicted that at forty 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.