"What a bore she must find it having to talk to all those empty-
brained fellows that have got round her there, just like buzzing
blue-bottle flies round sugar-barrel! I wonder it does not occur to
the Marchese that it would be more to the purpose to present to her
some of the brighter intelligences of the city. She must think
Ravenna is a city of blockheads! And one can see, with half an eye,
that is the sort of woman who can appreciate intellect!"
"It will be for you, Signor Conte, to prove to her that our city is
not deficient in that respect. Sapristi? Would you desire a better
subject? What do you say to an ode, now, on the rising of a new
constellation on the shores of the Adriatic? Hein! Or an inpromptu
on seeing the divine Lalli enter Ravenna through the same arch under
which the Empress Theodora must have passed?"
"I had already thought of that," snapped the poet, sharply.
"Of course you had," said the obsequious little man. "An impromptu,
by all means! You could have it ready to present to her at the
theatre to-morrow."
"Unless the Marchese thinks fit to present me to the lady presently,
I shall decline to write anything at all," rejoined Signor Leandro,
thus unjustly determining, in his ill-humour, to punish all Ravenna
for the fault of one single individual.
The Diva was, in the meantime, winning golden opinions on all sides.
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