And the youth sat down, on the very low chair to which she pointed him, doing his best to dispose of his long legs.
"Give me the dog!" she commanded.

"You have no idea how to hold him--poor lamb!" The dog was handed to her; she took off her enormous hat with many sighs of fatigue, and then, with the dog on her lap, asked how she was to sit.
Bentley explained that he wished to make a few preliminary sketches of her head and bust, and proceeded to pose her.

She accepted his directions with a curious pettishness, as though they annoyed her; and presently complained loudly that the chair was uncomfortable, and the pose irksome.

He handled her, however, with a good-humoured mixture of flattery and persuasion, and at last, stepping back, surveyed the result--well content.
There was no doubt whatever that she was a very handsome woman, and that her physical type--that of the more lethargic and heavily built Neapolitan--suggested very happily the mad and melancholy Queen.

She had superb black hair, eyes profoundly dark, a low and beautiful brow, lips classically fine, a powerful head and neck, and a complexion which, but for the treatment given it, would have been of a clear and beautiful olive.