The conscientious Sir Herbert would certainly want to make
enquiries on the spot--enquiries which would prove that no Faun had ever
been found there. And that would ruin everything. Therefore the statue
had been "carried" to the vineyard in ancient times by "some young and
ardent lover of art." Carried, ha, ha! His knowledge of human nature
made him doubt whether the Locri Faun had ever in its life made a
further journey than to Caloveglia's shady courtyard from that
mysterious, dusty shed at the back of his house. Or the Demeter either.
That "sadly mutilated head" was a feeler--a rehearsal. They both came
"from the same workshop." Excellent! That shed was the workshop--the
birthplace of these two antiques; the Count himself their old Hellenic
creator.
Andrea, no doubt, was the secret.
These art experts! Here was Street, one of the best of them, a man of
celebrity in his department, solemnly pronouncing for the authenticity
of the fake--in the full and innocent conviction that it was really
authentic.
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