remarkable delicacy that Beppo contrived to take upon himself the whole
ridicule of his vile pronunciation of the unwieldy name. Jacob Baumwalder
Feckelwitz offered him beer to refresh him after the effort. While Beppo
was drinking, he seized the fan. 'Good; good; a thousand thanks,' said
Beppo, relinquishing it; 'convey it aloft, I beseech you.' He displayed
such alacrity and lightness of limb at getting rid of it, that Jacob
thrust it between the buttons of his shirtfront, returning it to his
possession by that aperture. Beppo's head sank. A handful of black lace
and cedarwood chained him to the spot! He entreated the men in livery to
take the fan upstairs and deliver it to the Signora Laura Piaveni; but
they, being advised by Jacob, refused. 'Go yourself,' said Jacob,
laughing, and little prepared to see the victim, on whom he thought that
for another hour at least he had got his great paw firmly, take him at
his word. Beppo sprang into the hall and up the stairs. The duchess's
maid, ivory-faced Aennchen, was flying past him. She saw a very taking
dark countenance making eyes at her, leaned her ear shyly, and pretending
to understand all that was said by the rapid foreign tongue, acted from
the suggestion of the sole thing which she did understand. Beppo had
mentioned the name of the Signora Piaveni. 'This way,' she indicated with
her finger, supposing that of course he wanted to see the signora very
urgently.

Beppo tried hard to get her to carry the fan; but she lifted her fingers
in a perfect Susannah horror of it, though still bidding him to follow.
Naturally she did not go fast through the dark passages, where the game
of the fan was once more played out, and with accompaniments. The
accompaniments she objected to no further than a fish is agitated in
escaping from the hook; but 'Nein, nein!' in her own language, and 'No,
no!' in his, burst from her lips whenever he attempted to transfer the
fan to her keeping. 'These white women are most wonderful!' thought
Beppo, ready to stagger between perplexity and impatience.

'There; in there!' said Aennchen, pointing to a light that came through
the folds of a curtain. Beppo kissed her fingers as they tugged
unreluctantly in his clutch, and knew by a little pause that the case was
hopeful for higher privileges. What to do? He had not an instant to
spare; yet he dared not offend a woman's vanity. He gave an ecstatic
pressure of her hand upon his breastbone, to let her be