{"id":"01KG6YHB0Q1AG4VGKDH1KXF0G1","cid":"bafkreibvsq47acr5gcu7v3sbbavzzzl3slwbo4cnhez2oysw7qktxhtqmi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8295,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":8218,"text":"“Surely, Bannadonna,” lowly resumed the milder magistrate, “you meant\r\nthe twelve should wear the same jocundly abandoned air. But see, the\r\nsmile of Una seems but a fatal one. ’Tis different.”\r\n\r\nWhile his mild associate was speaking, the chief glanced, inquiringly,\r\nfrom him to the caster, as if anxious to mark how the discrepancy would\r\nbe accounted for. As the chief stood, his advanced foot was on the\r\nscuttle’s curb.\r\n\r\nBannadonna spoke:\r\n\r\n“Excellenza, now that, following your keener eye, I glance upon the\r\nface of Una, I do, indeed perceive some little variance. But look all\r\nround the bell, and you will find no two faces entirely correspond.\r\nBecause there is a law in art—but the cold wind is rising more; these\r\nlattices are but a poor defense. Suffer me, magnificoes, to conduct\r\nyou, at least, partly on your way. Those in whose well-being there is a\r\npublic stake, should be heedfully attended.”\r\n\r\n“Touching the look of Una, you were saying, Bannadonna, that there was\r\na certain law in art,” observed the chief, as the three now descended\r\nthe stone shaft, “pray, tell me, then—.”\r\n\r\n“Pardon; another time, Excellenza;—the tower is damp.”\r\n\r\n“Nay, I must rest, and hear it now. Here,—here is a wide landing, and\r\nthrough this leeward slit, no wind, but ample light. Tell us of your\r\nlaw; and at large.”\r\n\r\n“Since, Excellenza, you insist, know that there is a law in art, which\r\nbars the possibility of duplicates. Some years ago, you may remember, I\r\ngraved a small seal for your republic, bearing, for its chief device,\r\nthe head of your own ancestor, its illustrious founder. It becoming\r\nnecessary, for the customs’ use, to have innumerable impressions for\r\nbales and boxes, I graved an entire plate, containing one hundred of\r\nthe seals. Now, though, indeed, my object was to have those hundred\r\nheads identical, and though, I dare say, people think them; so, yet,\r\nupon closely scanning an uncut impression from the plate, no two of\r\nthose five-score faces, side by side, will be found alike. Gravity is\r\nthe air of all; but, diversified in all. In some, benevolent; in some,\r\nambiguous; in two or three, to a close scrutiny, all but incipiently\r\nmalign, the variation of less than a hair’s breadth in the linear\r\nshadings round the mouth sufficing to all this. Now, Excellenza,\r\ntransmute that general gravity into joyousness, and subject it to\r\ntwelve of those variations I have described, and tell me, will you not\r\nhave my hours here, and Una one of them? But I like—.”\r\n\r\n“Hark! is that—a footfall above?”\r\n\r\n“Mortar, Excellenza; sometimes it drops to the belfry-floor from the\r\narch where the stonework was left undressed. I must have it seen to. As\r\nI was about to say: for one, I like this law forbidding duplicates. It\r\nevokes fine personalities. Yes, Excellenza, that strange, and—to\r\nyou—uncertain smile, and those fore-looking eyes of Una, suit\r\nBannadonna very well.”\r\n\r\n“Hark!—sure we left no soul above?”\r\n\r\n“No soul, Excellenza; rest assured, no _soul_—Again the mortar.”\r\n\r\n“It fell not while we were there.”\r\n\r\n“Ah, in your presence, it better knew its place, Excellenza,” blandly\r\nbowed Bannadonna.\r\n\r\n“But, Una,” said the milder magistrate, “she seemed intently gazing on\r\nyou; one would have almost sworn that she picked you out from among us\r\nthree.”\r\n\r\n“If she did, possibly, it might have been her finer apprehension,\r\nExcellenza.”\r\n\r\n“How, Bannadonna? I do not understand you.”\r\n\r\n“No consequence, no consequence, Excellenza—but the shifted wind is\r\nblowing through the slit. Suffer me to escort you on; and then, pardon,\r\nbut the toiler must to his tools.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGCCBQ15QDEM5CEG7CHSQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0Q61WXG28Q4K0Z2N8C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0KHM05Q6D6B7WWQCSP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.167Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.913Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}