“Nonsense, man,” said the good-natured knight; “there is nobody left in the city with whom you could sup, except myself. But has my house the plague, that you have never ventured into it, since you dined there with Sebastian, and quarrelled with him? Or did you get struck by some magical charm, which has driven you away?”
Fulvius turned pale, and drew away Fabius to one side, while he said: “To tell the truth, something very like it.”
“I hope,” answered Fabius, somewhat startled, “that the black witch has been playing no tricks with you; I wish heartily she were out of my house. But, come,” he continued in good humor, “I really thought you were struck by a better charm that evening. I have my eyes open; I saw how your heart was fixed on my little cousin Agnes.”
Fulvius stared at him, with some amazement; and, after a pause, replied: “And if it was so, I saw that your daughter made up her mind, that no good should ever come out of it.”
“Say you so? Then that explains your constant refusal to come to me again. But Fabiola is a philosopher, and understands nothing of such matters. I wish, indeed, she would give up her books, and think of settling herself in life, instead of preventing others. But I can give you better news than that; Agnes is as much attached to you as you can be to her.”
“Is it possible? How can you happen to know it?”
“Why, then, to tell you what I should have told you long since, if you had not fought so shy of me, she confided it to me that very day.”
“To you?”
“Yes, to me; those jewels of yours quite won her heart. She told me as much. I knew she could only mean you. Indeed, I am sure she meant you.”
Fulvius understood these words of the rich gems which he displayed; while the knight spoke of the jewels which he imagined Agnes had received. She had proved, Fulvius was thinking, an easy prize, in spite of her demureness; and here lay fortune and rank open before him, if he could only manage his game; when Fabius thus broke in upon his dream: “Come now, you have only to press your suit boldly; and I tell you, you will win it, whatever Fabiola may think. But you have nothing to fear from her now. She and all her servants are absent; her part of the house is closed, and we enter by the back-door to the more enjoyable part of the establishment.”