"I never said a woman should make a black of herself against
the background. Va I Madonna Antigone, it's a shame for a
woman with your hair and shoulders to run into such nonsense
— leave it to women who are not worth painting. What! the
most holy Virgin herself has always been dressed well ; that's
the doctrine of the Church: — talk of heresy, indeed! And I
should like to know what the excellent Messer Bardo would
have said to the burning of the divine poets by these Frati,
who are no better an imitation of men than if they were
onions with the bulbs uppermost Look at that Petrarca
sticking up beside a rouge-pot: do the idiots pretend that the
heavenly Laura was a painted harridan? And Boccaccio,
now: do you mean to say. Madonna Romola — you who are
fit to be a model for a wise Saint Catherine of Egypt —do you
mean to say you have never read the stories of the immortal
Messer Giovanni?"

" It is true I have read them, Piero," said Bomola. " Some
of them a great many times over, when I was a little girl. I
used to get the book down when my father was asleep, so that
I could read to myself."

^^MheneV* said Piero, in a fiercely challenging tone.
