{"id":"01KG6YHB0Q61WXG28Q4K0Z2N8C","cid":"bafkreib3nuvudbzbtzadbdhci652hypvvylxsaan7vmftbvejuojlpi4v4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8228,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":8161,"text":"chisel, the latent beauty of its enrichments, before obscured by the\r\ncloudings incident to casting, that beauty in its shyest grace, was now\r\nrevealed. Round and round the bell, twelve figures of gay girls,\r\ngarlanded, hand-in-hand, danced in a choral ring—the embodied hours.\r\n\r\n“Bannadonna,” said the chief, “this bell excels all else. No added\r\ntouch could here improve. Hark!” hearing a sound, “was that the wind?”\r\n\r\n“The wind, Excellenza,” was the light response. “But the figures, they\r\nare not yet without their faults. They need some touches yet. When\r\nthose are given, and the—block yonder,” pointing towards the canvas\r\nscreen, “when Haman there, as I merrily call him,—him? _it_, I\r\nmean—when Haman is fixed on this, his lofty tree, then, gentlemen, will\r\nI be most happy to receive you here again.”\r\n\r\nThe equivocal reference to the object caused some return of\r\nrestlessness. However, on their part, the visitors forbore further\r\nallusion to it, unwilling, perhaps, to let the foundling see how easily\r\nit lay within his plebeian art to stir the placid dignity of nobles.\r\n\r\n“Well, Bannadonna,” said the chief, “how long ere you are ready to set\r\nthe clock going, so that the hour shall be sounded? Our interest in\r\nyou, not less than in the work itself, makes us anxious to be assured\r\nof your success. The people, too,—why, they are shouting now. Say the\r\nexact hour when you will be ready.”\r\n\r\n“To-morrow, Excellenza, if you listen for it,—or should you not, all\r\nthe same—strange music will be heard. The stroke of one shall be the\r\nfirst from yonder bell,” pointing to the bell adorned with girls and\r\ngarlands, “that stroke shall fall there, where the hand of Una clasps\r\nDua’s. The stroke of one shall sever that loved clasp. To-morrow, then,\r\nat one o’clock, as struck here, precisely here,” advancing and placing\r\nhis finger upon the clasp, “the poor mechanic will be most happy once\r\nmore to give you liege audience, in this his littered shop. Farewell\r\ntill then, illustrious magnificoes, and hark ye for your vassal’s\r\nstroke.”\r\n\r\nHis still, Vulcanic face hiding its burning brightness like a forge, he\r\nmoved with ostentatious deference towards the scuttle, as if so far to\r\nescort their exit. But the junior magistrate, a kind-hearted man,\r\ntroubled at what seemed to him a certain sardonical disdain, lurking\r\nbeneath the foundling’s humble mien, and in Christian sympathy more\r\ndistressed at it on his account than on his own, dimly surmising what\r\nmight be the final fate of such a cynic solitaire, nor perhaps\r\nuninfluenced by the general strangeness of surrounding things, this\r\ngood magistrate had glanced sadly, sideways from the speaker, and\r\nthereupon his foreboding eye had started at the expression of the\r\nunchanging face of the Hour Una.\r\n\r\n“How is this, Bannadonna?” he lowly asked, “Una looks unlike her\r\nsisters.”\r\n\r\n“In Christ’s name, Bannadonna,” impulsively broke in the chief, his\r\nattention, for the first attracted to the figure, by his associate’s\r\nremark, “Una’s face looks just like that of Deborah, the prophetess, as\r\npainted by the Florentine, Del Fonca.”\r\n\r\n“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","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGCCBQ15QDEM5CEG7CHSQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0QBFYWE44PGMR23DPQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0Q1AG4VGKDH1KXF0G1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.167Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.919Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}