E-Books for you

The noble maidens who attended the Lady Laura, fresh and charming, were
knotting loops of ribbon in pendant garlands or grouping flowers in
great vases between the columns which crossed the chamber from end to
end--darting up the stairway to the gallery to alter a festoon in
garland or brocade. Sallies of laughter, snatches of song, and pelting
of flowers, like a May-day frolic, made the work long in the doing, but
full of grace; and now and again, as if any purpose were wearying for
such light-hearted maidens, they dropped their garlands and glided over
the polished floor, twining and untwining their arms--a reflex in active
life, and not less radiant, of the nymphs of Bassano on the painted
ceiling, between those wonderful, gilded arabesques of Sansovino.
There was a little shriek of discomfiture as they suddenly perceived the
young lord of the day, but the Contessa Beata Tagliapietra came saucily
toward him as he was escaping.
"The Lady Laura hath charged me to ask the Signor Marcantonio whether
the garlands be disposed according to his liking.


Pages:
125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149