Vicenza in three hours, and we put up
at the "Cappello," where P---- C---- ordered a good dinner before leaving
me with the lady to call upon the manufacturers.

When the beauty found herself alone with me, she began by addressing
friendly reproaches to me.

"I have loved you," she said, "for eighteen years; the first time that I
saw you we were in Padua, and we were then only nine years old."

I certainly had no recollection of it. She was the daughter of the
antiquarian friend of M. Grimani, who had placed me as a boarder with the
accursed Sclavonian woman. I could not help smiling, for I recollected
that her mother had loved me.

Shop-boys soon began to make their appearance, bringing pieces of goods,
and the face of Madame C---- brightened up. In less than two hours the
room was filled with them, and P---- C---- came back with two merchants,
whom he had invited to dinner. Madame allured them by her pretty manners;
we dined, and exquisite wines were drunk in profusion. In the afternoon
fresh goods were brought in; P---- C---- made a list of them with the
prices; but he wanted more, and the merchants promised to send them the
next day, although it was Sunday. Towards the evening several counts
arrived, for in Vicenza every nobleman is a count. P---- C---- had left his
letters of recommendation at their houses. We had a Count Velo, a Count
Sesso, a Count Trento--all very amiable companions. They invited us to
accompany them to the casino, where Madame C---- shone by her charms and
her coquettish manners. After we had spent two hours in that place,
P---- C---- invited all his new friends to supper, and it was a scene of
gaiety and profusion. The whole affair annoyed me greatly, and therefore
I was not amiable; the consequence was that no one spoke to me. I rose
from my seat and went to bed, leaving the joyous company still round the
festive board. In the morning I came downstairs, had my breakfast, and
looked about me. The room was so full of goods that I did not see how
P---- C---- could possibly pay for all with his six thousand florins. He
told me, however, that his business would be completed on the morrow, and
that we were invited to a ball where all the nobility would be present.
The merchants with whom he had dealt came to dine with us, and the dinner
was remarkable for its extreme profusion.

We went to the ball; but I soon got very weary of it, for every body was
speaking to Madame C---- and to P---- C----,