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The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe, With Biographical Introductions, Portraits, and Other Illustrations (7); Agnes of Sorrento
The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe With Biographical Introductions Portraits and Other Illustrations Agnes of Sorrento - 7 Author:Harriet Beecher Stowe Volume: 7 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1896 Original Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and company Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / United States / General Literary Criticism / American / General Social Science / Slavery Notes: This is a black and white ... more »OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV WHO AND WHAT Old Elsie was not born a peasant. Originally she was the wife of a steward in one of those great families of Rome whose estate and traditions were princely. Elsie, as her figure and profile and all her words and movements indicated, was of a strong, shrewd, ambitious, and courageous character, and well disposed to turn to advantage every gift with which Nature had endowed her. Providence made her a present of a daughter whose beauty was wonderful, even in a country where beauty is no uncommon accident. In addition to her beauty, the little Isella had quick intelligence, wit, grace, and spirit. As a child she became the pet and plaything of the Princess whom Elsie served. This noble lady, pressed by the ennui which is always the moth and rust on the purple and gold of rank and wealth, had, as other noble ladies had in those days, and have now, sundry pets: greyhounds, white and delicate, that looked as if they were made of Sevres china; spaniels with long silky ears and fringy paws; apes and monkeys, that made at times sad devastations in her wardrobe; and a most charming little dwarf, that was ugly enough to frighten the very owls, and spiteful as he was ugly. She had, moreover, peacocks, and macaws, and parrots, and all sorts of singing-birds, and falcons of every breed, and horses, and hounds, -- in short, there is no saying what she did not have. ...« less