And thus the miserable man passed the greater part of the night in
useless strugglings with the bonds that bound him.
It was near morning before he crept, still sleepless, but utterly
worn out, to his bed.
He did sleep, exhausted as he was, after awhile; but it was only to
see again in dreams all that he had so bitterly wished that he had
never seen at all. Sometimes he was himself by Bianca's side,
licensed to revel to the full in her every charm. And then the dream
would change. It was Ludovico he saw in her white arms; and he
started from his fevered sleep bathed in perspiration and quivering
in every limb.
The next morning he was, in truth, quite ill enough to have
furnished a very sufficient and unsuspected excuse for not going to
meet the impresario at Bianca's house according to appointment. He
thought at first that he would do so. But as the time drew near, he
dragged himself from his bed, haggard, fevered, and looking very
ill, and crawled to the appointed meeting.
BOOK IV
The last Days of the Carnival
CHAPTER I
In the Cardinal's Chapel
Paolina was industriously pursuing her task in the chapel of the
Cardinal's palace. Ludovico was not so frequently with her there as
he had been while she was at work in San Vitale. But there were
evident reasons why this was necessarily the case.
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