"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!——"