, and both have expectations from rich aunts
and other blood relations, who die without children."

"You paint in vivid colors."

"But they are true, and they all suit the Junker; though to be sure he
need not keep his property for sons, since his wife gave him none. He
met her at court in Brussels, and she came from Parma."

"Did you know her?"

"She died before I came to the padrona's house. The two young ladies
grew up without a mother. You have heard that their father would even
attack them, yet he doubtless loved them and would never resolve
to place them in a convent. True, he often felt--at least he freely
admitted it in conversations with her excellenza--that there were more
suitable places for young girls than his castle, where matters went
badly enough, and so he at last sent his oldest daughter to us. My
mistress usually could not endure the society of young girls, but
Fraulein Anna was one of her nearest relatives, and I know she invited
her of her own accord. I can still see in memory the signorina at
sixteen; a sweeter creature, Herr Wilhelm, my eyes have never beheld
before or since, and yet she never remained the same. I have seen her
as soft as Flemish velvet, but at other times she could rage like a
November storm in your country. She was always beautiful as a rose and,
as her mother's old cameriera--she was a native of Lugano--had
brought her up, and the priest who taught her came from Pisa and was
acknowledged to be an excellent musician, she spoke my language like
a child of Tuscany and was perfectly familiar with music. You have
doubtless heard her singing, her harp and lute-playing, but you should
know that all the ladies of the Hoogstraten family, with the exception
of my mistress, possess a special talent for your art. In summer we
lived in the beautiful country-house, that was torn down before the
siege by your friends--with little justice I think. Many a stately guest
rode out to visit us. We kept open house, and where there is a good
table and a beautiful young lady like our signorina, the gallants are
not far off. Among them was a very aristocratic gentleman of middle age,
the Marquis d'Avennes, whom her excellenza had expressly invited. We had
never received any prince with so much attention; but this was a matter
of course, for his mother was a relative of her excellenza. You must
know that my mistress; on her mother's side, is descended from a family
in Normandy. The Marquis d'Avennes