promise; though had it not been for Madonna Paola
and what I did, I scarce know how I should have penetrated here to you."

She broke the seal, and rising crossed to the window, where she stood
reading the letter, her back toward me. Presently I heard a stifled
sob. The letter was crushed in her hand. Then moments passed ere she
confronted me once more. But her manner as all changed; she was agitated
and preoccupied, and for all that she forced herself to talk of me and
my affairs, her mind was clearly elsewhere. At last she left me, nor did
I see her again during the time I was confined to my bed.

On the eleventh day I rose, and the weather being mild and spring-like,
I was permitted by my grave-faced doctor to take the air a little on the
terrace that overlooks the sea. I found no garments but some suits of
motley, and so, in despite of my repugnance now to reassume that garb, I
had no choice but to array myself in one of these. I selected the least
garish one--a suit of black and yellow stripes, with hose that was half
black, half yellow, too; and so, leaning upon the crutch they had left
me, I crept forth into the sunlight, the very ghost of the man that I
had been a fortnight ago.

I found a stone seat in a sheltered corner looking southward towards
Ancona, and there I rested me and breathed the strong invigorating air
of the Adriatic. The snows were gone, and between me and the wall some
twenty paces off--there was a stretch of soft, green turf.

I had brought with me a book that Madonna Lucrezia had sent me while I
was yet abed. It was a manuscript collection of Spanish odes, with
the proverbs of one Domenico Lopez--all very proper nourishment for
a jester's mind. The odes seemed to possess a certain quaintness, and
among the proverbs there were many that were new to me in framing and
in substance. Moreover, I was glad of this means of improving my
acquaintance with the tongue of Spain, and I was soon absorbed. So
absorbed, indeed, as never to hear the footsteps of the Lord Giovanni,
when presently he approached me unattended, nor to guess at his presence
until his shadow fell athwart my page. I raised my eyes, and seeing who
it was I made shift to get on my feet; but he commanded me to remain
seated, commenting sympathetically upon my weak condition.

He asked me what I read, and when I had told him, a thin smile fluttered
across his white face.

"You choose your reading with rare judgment," said he. "Rea