Bianca
had taken the opportunity--somewhat coquettishly, but according to
the laws and customs of such occasions, quite permissibly--to pay
Ludovico the compliment in the eye of all Ravenna of throwing some
flowers because she liked him, and because she chose to mark the
fact that she threw none during all the Corso to anybody else. She
would have done the same if it had so happened that it had been in
front of the Marchese Lamberto's carriage instead of behind it; but,
of course, to the passion-blinded brain of the latter, this
circumstance made all the difference.
As to the rolling of his own superb bouquet on the pavement, it had
been quite accidental, and much regretted by Bianca. To recover
anything of the kind on such an occasion is, it must be understood,
quite out of the question. Any such fallen treasure--and half the
things thrown do fall short of the hands for which they are meant--
becomes the instant prey of the small boys who throng the streets,
and are constantly on the look-out for such windfalls around the
carriages.
CHAPTER III
"La Sonnambula"
It may be easily imagined that the Marchese returned from the Corso
very little disposed to take any pleasure in the treat to which all
Ravenna was looking forward, and which he would have enjoyed more
than any one else under other circumstances--the performance at the
theatre on that Sunday evening.
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