No wonder that she laughed at the taste of the
boy or his employer. Graver heads than hers might question the motive
which had set the painter such a model. Imagination suggested that some
elfin godmother must have prescribed the task as a condition of her
future favor. At all events, the malicious sprite now acting as overseer
felt a sense of triumph in this captive boy, perched against the wall,
and condemned, like herself, to reproduce the past and bring out in
fresh colors the staring eyes and mummied cheeks which would otherwise
soon be lost to memory. She certainly made the most of her opportunity
to taunt and tease him, for there was time for a laugh and a word of
raillery only, to which he seemed too shamefaced to respond, before she
was at our side again, gravely announcing, "My lady's chamber!"--and as
we looked around the apartment, whose furniture and decorations imparted
to it a superior air of neatness and refinement to that observable
elsewhere, she pointed out to us a private doorway, conducting to a
flight of steps, and affording an exit by which "my lady" had easy
access to the court-yard, and thence to the chapel where she performed
her devotions.
"And what are the rooms opposite?" we asked, pointing to a long row of
windows on the second floor, on the opposite side of the quadrangle to
that of which we had now completed the inspection.
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