Most of the things were portraits; and the three at which he looked longest were finished busts.

One was a colossal head of a negro, tossed back, defiant, with distended nostrils; one was the portrait of a young man whom Rowland immediately perceived, by the resemblance, to be his deceased brother; the last represented a gentleman with a pointed nose, a long, shaved upper lip, and a tuft on the end of his chin.

This was a face peculiarly unadapted to sculpture; but as a piece of modeling it was the best, and it was admirable.

It reminded Rowland in its homely veracity, its artless artfulness, of the works of the early Italian Renaissance.

On the pedestal was cut the name--Barnaby Striker, Esq.