"I have not forgotten it. I shall esteem it an honour to sit to so great a master. How would you have me dressed, Messer Sebastian? What pose shall you choose?" "Vossignoria will allow me to study you a little before I decide?" "Certainly, certainly. Rather formidable, though, to think I am always being studied!" "I should recommend Vossignoria not to think at all about it." "Well, I will try. You are fatigued with your journey, Messer Sebastian." "It will soon pass off. My hand is not steady enough to paint to-day. The journey has interested me. I have made acquaintance with the promontory of Circe, the shining rock of Anxur, and the towering Volscian mountains--all renowned in song, as I need not tell you, Signora! I observed Cora and Sezza shining like aërial palaces against the brown rugged rock that supports them. I viewed with interest the woods and thickets that once sheltered Camilla. Piperno is, you know, the _antiqua urbs_ of Virgil. I am speaking to a princess who is a classical scholar----" "Little enough of one," replied the Duchess. "Cardinal Ippolito took compassion on my ignorance, and translated the second book of the Eneid for me. But how go things at Rome?" And the great painter found that the great lady was more interested in the chit-chat of the capital, than in classical allusion and learned quotation. The Duchess could always summon at short notice a little circle of deferential friends to her evening meal. She appeared in velvet and jewels. The next morning she wore white. This was not out of coquetry, but as a simple matter of business, that the famous master might make up his mind what suited her best, as a sitter, and proceed to work. "Lady," said he, "I prefer the dress in which I saw you first." "Oh, but that is so old! so shabby!----" "_Non importa_--it harmonises with your complexion----" "Two shades of olive," said she, laughing a little; and she went to change her dress. When she returned, Sebastian had concentrated the light by excluding it altogether from one window, and placing a screen before the lower half of the other. His easel and panel had been brought in by his attendant, who was now busy laying his palette, and the artist was selecting chalks and cartridge paper for a preparatory sketch. "You look charming," said he, as Giulia entered and seated herself in a raised chair. She was in the olive-green dress, cut square on the bust, with velvet bars on the corsage; and full, puffed, long sleeves, a white lace neckerchief, and long transparent veil, added to the modest and noble simplicity of her dress; while her rich auburn hair, dark in the shade and golden in the sun,[8] was braided behind with a few pearls, and gathered into rich coils. [8] "As through the meadow-lands clear rivers run, Blue in the shadow, silver in the sun." Hon. Mrs. Norton. _Lady of La Garaye._