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.