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I quickly forced myself to recover. That monks with their nun mistresses should be so openly spoken of--that a monk should use his mistress as a model for the Virgin, no less--was something else I must accustom myself to about this Florence, it seemed. Was this what my father sought to warn mr of, when we arrived in the city? I wondered. Yet since Lorenzo clearly thought nothing of the tale, nor did Marco seem all scandalized, I knew I must master myself. I stepped closer to the portrait. "She is quite beautiful," I said softly, studying the figure that Lorenzo had identified as Lucrezia Buti.
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