Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/193

 things in the marble. Your mother 's to come and look at some that I possess."

"Thank you; I 've no doubt you 'll see us. I dare say Mr. Hudson 's very clever; but I don't care for modern sculpture. I can't look at it."

"You shall care for my bust, I promise you!" Roderick declared with a laugh.

"To satisfy Miss Light," said the Cavaliere, "one of the old Greeks ought to come to life."

"It would be worth his while," said Roderick, acquitting himself, to Rowland's knowledge, of his first public madrigal.

"I might sit to Phidias if he would promise to be very amusing and make me laugh. What do you say, Stenterello? would you sit to Phidias?"

"We must talk of this some other time," said Mrs. Light. "We 're in Rome for the winter. Many thanks. Cavaliere, call the carriage." The Cavaliere led the way out, backing like a silver-stick, and Miss Light, following her mother, nodded, without looking at them, to each of the young men.

"Immortal powers, what a head!" cried Roderick when they were gone. "There's my fortune — on that girl's two feet."

"She 's certainly very beautiful," said Rowland. "But I 'm sorry you 've undertaken her bust."

"And why, pray?"

"I suspect it will bring trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I hardly know. They're queer people. The mamma strikes me as a good bit of an adventuress. Heaven knows what the daughter may be." 159