"I am afraid I have fallen much in your esteem."
"My esteem, chevalier, is at present of no value to man or woman."
"Do you think so?" he said, and then rapidly, "Adieu for the present; remember, I hold you to your word that you think me a friend."
I made no answer, and he ran lightly up the steps of the principal entrance.
I supped that evening for a change with the gentlemen of the suite; but St. Armande was not there, and there were a few free remarks made concerning the manner in which he was supposed to have been received at the Vatican by Giulia Orsini, and Lucrezia Borgia.
"If it goes on like this," said Le Clerc, "we will have to drag the Tiber for his body, and say masses for his soul, unless he puts the seas between himself and the Borgia."
"He never struck me as a man to run after the ladies," I said.
"No," replied the abbé, "but it is the other way. You would stand no chance against him, cavalier, for all your long moustache--a thousand thanks," and the genial Le Clerc seized the flagon of Orvieto I passed to him, and filled his goblet.
After this the conversation changed, and I shortly retired to my apartments, and dismissing my lackey, sat down to read a book on falconry that the cardinal had lent me. I had not been occupied thus for an hour when the door opened, and Jacopo cautiously peeped in. He withdrew his head on catching my eye, and I heard him shuffling outside.
"Come in."