It was a delightful breakfast, though we passed certain bounds which decency ought to have proscribed to us, but Leonilda was wonderfully innocent considering her position. We ended the scene by mutual embraces, and when I took my burning lips from Leonilda’s I felt consumed with a fire which I could not conceal.
When we left I told the duke that I would see his mistress no more, unless he would give her up to me, declaring that I would marry her and give her a dower of five thousand ducats.
“Speak to her, and if she consents I will not oppose it. She herself will tell you what property she has.”
I then went to dress for dinner. I found the duchess in the midst of a large circle, and she told me kindly that she was very sorry to hear of my losses.
“Fortune is the most fickle of beings, but I don’t complain of my loss—nay, when you speak thus I love it, and I even think that you will make me win this evening.”
“I hope so, but I am afraid not; you will have to contend against Monte Leone, who is usually very lucky.”
In considering the matter after dinner, I determined for the future to play with ready money and not on my word of honour, lest I should at any time be carried away by the excitement of play and induced to stake more than I possessed. I thought, too, that the banker might have his doubts after the two heavy losses I had sustained, and I confess that I was also actuated by the gambler’s superstition that by making a change of any kind one changes the luck.
I spent four hours at the theatre in Leonilda’s box, where I found her more gay and charming than I had seen her before.
“Dear Leonilda,” I said, “the love I feel for you will suffer no delay and no rivals, not even the slightest inconstancy. I have told the duke that I am ready to marry you, and that I will give you a dower of five thousand ducats.”
“What did he say?”