By her side lay her grandmother, with those sharp, hard, clearly cut features, so worn and bronzed by time, so lined with labor and care, as to resemble one of the Fates in the picture of Michel Angelo; and even in her sleep she held the delicate lily hand of the child in her own hard, brown one, with a strong and determined clasp.

While they sleep, we must tell something more of the story of the little Agnes,—­of what she is, and what are the causes which have made her such.

CHAPTER IV.

Who and what.

Old Elsie was not born a peasant.  Originally she was the wife of a steward in one of those great families of Rome whose state and traditions were princely.  Elsie, as her figure and profile and all her words and movements indicated, was of a strong, shrewd, ambitious, and courageous character, and well disposed to turn to advantage every gift with which Nature had endowed her.

Providence made her a present of a daughter whose beauty was wonderful, even in a country where beauty is no uncommon accident.  In addition to her beauty, the little Isella had quick intelligence, wit, grace, and spirit.  As a child she became the pet and plaything of the Duchess whom Elsie served.  This noble lady, pressed by the ennui which is always the moth and rust on the purple and gold of rank and wealth, had, as other noble ladies had in those days, and have now, sundry pets:  greyhounds, white and delicate, that looked as if they were made of Sevres china; spaniels with long silky ears and fringy paws; apes and monkeys, that made at times sad devastations in her wardrobe; and a most charming little dwarf, that was ugly enough to frighten the very owls, and spiteful as he was ugly.  She had, moreover, peacocks, and macaws, and parrots, and all sorts of singing-birds, and falcons of every breed, and horses, and hounds,—­in short, there is no saying what she did not have.  One day she took it into her head to add the little Isella to the number of her acquisitions.  With the easy grace of aristocracy, she reached out her jewelled hand and took Elsie’s one flower to add to her conservatory,—­and Elsie was only too proud to have it so.

Her daughter was kept constantly about the person of the Duchess, and instructed in all the wisdom which would have been allowed her, had she been the Duchess’s own daughter, which, to speak the truth, was in those days nothing very profound,—­consisting of a little singing and instrumentation, a little embroidery and dancing, with the power of writing her own name and of reading a love-letter.