At the moment she was resting lazily on one elbow, and gazing abstractedly up at the moving ocean of green overhead.

She was only sixteen; but in the warm Italian clime that age had brought her to maturity.

No one would have said that she was beautiful, from the point of view of mere softly sensuous Greek beauty.

Rather, she was handsome, as became the daughter of Cornelii and Claudii.

She was tall; her hair, which was bound in a plain knot on the back of her head, was dark--almost black; her eyes were large, grey, lustrous, and on occasion could be proud and angry.