"She is a child, beyond doubt," I thought, "but a child who is tired of being one, and I should be a great fool not to reply to allurements resorted to so coolly and boldly. Faith! I am sorry for the cousin! Why does he care more for hunting than for his kinswoman?"
But the signora paid no heed to the agitation that had laid hold of me. "Now the farce is at an end," she continued; "we have eaten my cousin's game and I have talked with an actor. I have fooled my aunt and my future spouse. Last week my cousin was furious because I praised you with what he considered too great warmth. Now, when he mentions you to me, and when my aunt says that the actors are all excommunicated in France, I will look at the floor with a modest and beatific expression, and laugh in my sleeve to think that I know Signor Lelio, and that I breakfasted with him, in this very room, without anyone's suspecting it. But now, Signor Lelio, you must tell me why you chose to obtain admission to this house by playing a false rôle?"
"Forgive me, signora—you just now said something which touched me deeply. You said, did you not, that you praised me last week with great warmth?"
"Oh! I only did it to make my cousin angry. I am not naturally enthusiastic."
When she flaunted me, it revived my zest for the adventure, and emboldened me.
"Since you are so frank with me, signora," I rejoined, "I will be equally frank with your ladyship. I sought admission to this house with the intention of atoning for my crime and humbly imploring the forgiveness of the divine beauty I blasphemed."
As I spoke, I slipped from my chair, and knelt at La Grimani's feet, and was very near taking possession of her lovely hands. She did not seem greatly moved by my action; but I saw that, to conceal a slight embarrassment, she pretended to be examining the Chinese mandarins whose gowns of purple and gold gleamed resplendent on her fan.
"Really, signor," she said, without looking at me, "you are very good to think that you owe me an apology. In the first place, if I have a stupid look, you are not at all to blame for noticing it; in the second place, if I have not, it is a matter of absolute indifference to me whether or not you are persuaded that I have."
"I swear by all the gods, and particularly by Apollo, that I said what I did only because I was angry or mad, or it may be because of a very different sentiment, which was then but just born and was already sowing confusion in my mind. I saw that you considered me detestable, and that you were not inclined to be at all indulgent to me; could I tranquilly resign myself to lose the only approbation which it would have been sweet and glorious for me to obtain? In a word, signora, I am here; I discovered your abode, and though I barely knew your name, I sought you, pursued you, and reached you in spite of distance and obstacles. I am here at your feet. Do you think that I would have surmounted such difficulties if I had not been tortured by remorse, not because of you, who justly disdain to consider the effect of your charms on a poor player like myself; but because of God, whose fairest work I insulted and undervalued?"
While I was speaking, I ventured to take one of her hands; but she suddenly sprang to her feet, saying: