ections of the first day when he met with Nanina, of the first
sitting she had given him in Luca Lomi's studio, of the first visit
to the neat little room in the by-street, began to rise more and more
vividly in his mind. Entirely absorbed by them, he sat absently drawing
with pen and ink, on some sheets of letter-paper lying under his hand,
lines and circles, and fragments of decorations, and vague remembrances
of old ideas for statues, until the sudden sinking of the flame of his
lamp awoke his attention abruptly to present things.

He looked at his watch. It was close on midnight.

This discovery at last aroused him to the necessity of immediate
departure. In a few minutes he had put on his domino and mask, and was
on his way to the ball.

Before he reached the Melani Palace the first part of the entertainment
had come to an end. The "Toy Symphony" had been played, the grotesque
dance performed, amid universal laughter; and now the guests were, for
the most part, fortifying themselves in the Arcadian bowers for new
dances, in which all persons present were expected to take part.
The Marquis Melani had, with characteristic oddity, divided his two
classical refreshment-rooms into what he termed the Light and Heavy
Departments. Fruit, pastry, sweetmeats, salads, and harmless drinks were
included under the first head, and all the stimulating liquors and solid
eatables under the last. The thirty shepherdesses had been, according
to the marquis's order, equally divided at the outset of the evening
between the two rooms. But as the company began to crowd more and
more resolutely in the direction of the Heavy Department, ten of the
shepherdesses attached to the Light Department were told off to assist
in attending on the hungry and thirsty majority of guests who were not
to be appeased by pastry and lemonade. Among the five girls who were
left behind in the room for the light refreshments was Nanina. The
steward soon discovered that the novelty of her situation made her
really nervous, and he wisely concluded that if he trusted her where the
crowd was greatest and the noise loudest, she would not only be utterly
useless, but also very much in the way of her more confident and
experienced companions.

When Fabio arrived at the palace, the jovial uproar in the Heavy
Department was at its height, and several gentlemen, fired by the
classical costumes of the shepherdesses, were beginning to speak
Latin to them with a thick u