As it
was, it was an additional source of irritation to the Marchese,--
another drop of gall in his cup, to hear it constantly mentioned by
Bianca in the most innocent way in the world, that Ludovico had been
here with her, or there with her, or passing the morning with her!
It was drawing towards the end of the Carnival, which the late fall
of Easter had made rather a long one that year, when, on one
Saturday night, Bianca sat by her own fireside, expecting a visit
from the Marchese. She doubted not that he would come, though no
special appointment on the subject had been made between them. There
were few "off evenings" now, that he did not spend with her.
Saturday in most of the cities of Italy is, or was, an off night at
the theatre, being the vigil of the Sunday feast-day. The
ecclesiastical proprieties are less attended to now in matters
theatrical, as in other matters in Italy. But Saturday used, in
ante-revolutionary times, to be an evening on which actors and
actresses and their friends could always reckon for a holiday.
Bianca was sitting, exquisitely dressed, it need hardly be said, in
a style which combined with inimitable skill all the requirements of
the most strict propriety with perfect adaptation to the objects of
showing off every beauty of face, hair, hand, figure, foot to the
utmost, and attracting her expected visitor as irresistibly as
possible.
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