"
"He'll come sure enough," said Quinto; as he prepared to leave the
room.
"It's quite time, then, that I made myself ready to receive him,"
returned Bianca, getting up from the sofa.
"Amo il zeffiro, perche a lui suo nome confido," she sang, as she
turned listlessly to go to her chamber; and despite what she had
said--and said with perfect sincerity to her adopted father--it may
be feared that the suo did not refer in the singer's mind to the
Marchese Lamberto.
Quinto Lalli was in the act of shutting the sitting-room door behind
him, when the outer door of the apartment opened and Ludovico
appeared in the doorway. He was the very last man whom Quinto, with
the ideas in his head which the above conversation with Bianca had
put into it, would have wished to see there. And perhaps there was
something in his manner of meeting the visitor that enabled the
Marchesino to perceive that he was not just then welcome.
"A thousand pardons," he said, in an easy, careless manner, "for
coming at so indiscreetly early an hour; but I could not refrain
from just saying one word to the Signorina Bianca on her last
night's triumph, and I shall have no opportunity of seeing her later
in the day."
"Bianca," called out Quinto, re-opening the door he was closing, and
putting his head back into the room, "here's the Marchese Ludovico
wishes to speak to you.
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