“Ah, that’s better! Tell your future husband that if he likes me to be the patron of the wedding I will pay for everything.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I will give him twenty-five sequins on the condition that he spends it all on the wedding.”
“Twenty-five sequins! That will make people talk; but what care we? I will give you an answer to-morrow.”
“And a kiss now?”
“With all my heart.”
Zenobia went away in great delight, and I went out to call on my banker and dear Thérèse.
When the door was opened the pretty maid recognized me, and taking me by the hand led me to her mistress, who was just going to get up. Her emotion at seeing me was so great that she could not utter a word, but only clasped me to her breast.
Our natural transports over, Thérèse told me that she had got tired of her husband, and that for the last six months they had not been living together. She had made him an allowance to get rid of him, and he lived on it at Rome.
“And where is Cesarino?”