He came furnished with letters to the Governor, and Gambara had brought him to Fifanti's villa.

From Monna Giuliana the young painter heard the curious story of my having been vowed prenatally to the cloister by my mother, learnt her name and mine, and the hope that was entertained that I should walk in the ways of St.
Augustine after whom I had been christened.
It happened that he was about to paint a picture of St.Augustine, as a fresco for the chapel of the Magi of the church I have named.

And having seen me and heard that story of mine, he conceived the curious notion of using me as the model for the figure of the saint.

I consented, and daily for a week he came to us in the afternoons to paint; and all the time Monna Giuliana would be with us, deeply interested in his work.
That picture he eventually transferred to his fresco, and there--O bitter irony!--you may see me to this day, as the saint in whose ways it was desired that I should follow.
Monna Giuliana and I would linger together in talk after the painter had gone; and this would be at about the time that I had my first lessons of Curial life from my Lord Gambara.

You will remember that he mentioned Boccaccio to me, and I chanced to ask her was there in the library a copy of that author's tales.
"Has that wicked priest bidden you to read them ?" she inquired, 'twixt seriousness and mockery, her dark eyes upon me in one of those glances that never left me easy.
I told her what had passed; and with a sigh and a comment that I would get an indigestion from so much mental nourishment as I was consuming, she led me to the little library to find the book.
Messer Fifanti's was a very choice collection of works, and every one in manuscript; for the doctor was something of an idealist, and greatly averse to the printing-press and the wide dissemination of books to which it led.