I was sitting down to table when I had the pleasure of seeing Lucrezia herself come in. She gave a cry of delight and rushed to my arms.
This excellent woman was exactly my own age, but she would have been taken for fifteen years younger.
After I had told her how I had come to hear about her I asked for news of our daughter.
“She is longing to see you, and her husband too; he is a worthy old man, and will be so glad to know you.”
“How does he know of my existence?”
“Leonilda has mentioned your name a thousand times during the five years they have been married. He is aware that you gave her five thousand ducats. We shall sup together.”
“Let us go directly; I cannot rest till I have seen my Leonilda and the good husband God has given her. Have they any children?”
“No, unluckily for her, as after his death the property passes to his relations. But Leonilda will be a rich woman for all that; she will have a hundred thousand ducats of her own.”
“You have never married.”
“No.”