"
"All right, bambina mia! I will be back in time. I'm going to the
cafe to get some breakfast," called out Quinto through the door.
"Yes. But, papa, be here at one o'clock, and do not come back before
that. E inteso? And send me a cup of chocolate from the cafe."
"Inteso! I'll be here at one, and not before," said the old man
through the door, with special emphasis on the last words.
Then Bianca called her maid, told her to bring the chocolate to her
as soon as it came from the cafe, and then to come and dress her at
ten. Whether the intervening time was spent in sleep or meditation
may be doubted; but, at all events, when the hour for action came
Bianca was ready for it.
By means of the skilled and practised assistance of Gigia Daddi, the
maid who had been with her ever since the first beginning of her
stage career, the Diva had completed her toilette by half-past
eleven. But she had had, to a certain degree, a double toilette to
perform. All the component parts of a rich and very becoming
morning-costume had been selected and assorted with due care, and
minute attention to the effect each portion of it was calculated to
produce in combination with the rest; and then they had been not put
on, but laid out in order on the bed. The more immediate purpose of
the Diva was to array herself differently--differently, but by no
means with a less careful and well-considered attention to the
result which was intended to be produced.
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