Having made his figure in one posture he rose and showed
me another and drew his fisherman so. Then he demonstrated
a third way and drew again. Now he was silent,
working hard, and now he dropped his hand, threw back
his head and talked. He himself made a picture, paly gold
of locks, subtle and quick of face, plastered against a blue
shield with a willow wreath going around.

I stood so or so, drawing hard upon the net with the
fishes. Then at his command I approached more nearly, and
he drew full face and three-quarter and profile. It was between
these accomplishings that he talked more intimately.

"Seamen go to Italy," he said. "Were you ever in
Milan? But that is inland."

I answered that I had been from Genoa to Milan.

"It is not likely that you saw a great painter there
Messer Leonardo?"

It happened that I had done this, and moreover had seen
him at work and heard him put right thought into most right
words. I was so tired of lying that after a moment I said
that I had seen and heard Messer Leonardo.

"Did you see the statue?"

"The first time I saw him he was at work upon it. The