Won't that do?"
"Perfect! I shall enjoy it amazingly. I will be sure to be ready
when you come at six o'clock."
"I will be there at six or thereabouts. Now we will go back to the
ball-room; but don't dance till you have not a leg left to stand on.
We must have a good long stroll in the Pineta."
"Lascia fare a me! I dare say I shan't dance another dance--unless,
indeed, we have one more turn together before you go. Is there
time?"
"Oh yes, for that plenty of time. If you are not afraid of tiring
yourself, one more last dance by all means."
So giving her his arm, the Marchesino led his beautiful and
fascinating companion back to the ballroom, where the music was
again making the most of the time with another waltz.
CHAPTER II
Apollo Vindex
The Conte Leandro Lombardoni had not passed a pleasant Carnival.
Reconciled, as he had recently professed himself to be--after some
one of the frequent misfortunes that happened to his intercourse
with them--with the fair sex, he had begun his Carnival by
attempting to make his merit acceptable in the eyes of La Lalli; and
had failed to obtain any recognition from her, even as a poet, to
say nothing of his pretensions as a Don Juan. To a certain limited
degree, it had been forced upon his perception, that he had been
making an ass of himself; and the appreciation of that fact by the
other young men among whom he lived had been indicated with that
coarse brutality, as the poet said to himself, which was the outcome
of minds not "softened by the study of the ingenuous arts," as his
own was.
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