'Master,' he said presently, 'I crave your pardon; but I have thought long, and still I comprehend not how you were able to create the Cavallo and the Cenacolo at one and the same time.'
Leonardo looked at his disciple in quiet surprise.
'Oh, Messer Leonardo! do you not feel yourself that they are impossible together?'
'No, Giovanni. To my thinking, one helps out the other. My best ideas for the Cenacolo come to me when I am working at the Colossus; and in that convent refectory yonder, I love to think upon this monument of Duke Francesco. The works are twins. I began them together, and together I shall finish them.'
'Together! Christ, and this man? It is impossible!' And ignorant how to express his thought, yet feeling his heart on fire, he repeated passionately, 'It is impossible!'
'And why?' asked the master with his quiet smile.
Giovanni would have tried to reply; but meeting those calm uncomprehending eyes, the words died upon his lips, for Leonardo would not have understood them. So he held his peace and thought within himself.
'Strange! An hour ago, looking at his picture, I fancied that I knew him. And now I find I do not know him at all. Of which of those twain does he say in his heart: 'Behold the god?''