I was so tired of lying that after a moment I said that I had seen and heard Messer Leonardo.
"Did you see the statue ?" "The first time I saw him he was at work upon it.

The next time he was painting in the church of Santa Maria.

The third time he sat in a garden, sipped wine and talked." "I hold you," he said, "to be a fortunate fisherman! Just as this fisher I am painting, and whether it is Andrew or Mark, I do not yet know, was a most fortunate fisherman!" He ended meditatively, "Though whoever it is, probably he was crucified or beheaded or burned." I felt a certain shiver of premonition.

The day that had been warm and bright turned in a flash ashy and chill.

Then it swung back to its first fair seeming, or not to its first, but to a deeper, brighter yet.