harming girl were not altogether unknown
to me, but I could not recollect of what woman she reminded me. Leonilda
was certainly a beauty, and something superior to a beauty, if possible.
She had splendid light chestnut hair, and her black and brilliant eyes,
shaded by thick lashes, seemed to hear and speak at the same time. But
what ravished me still more was her expression, and the exquisite
appropriateness of the gestures with which she accompanied what she was
saying. It seemed as if her tongue could not give speech to the thoughts
which crowded her brain. She was naturally quick-witted, and her
intellect had been developed by an excellent education.

The conversation turned upon Lafontaine's epigram, of which I had only
recited the first ten verses, as the rest is too licentious; and she
said,--

"But I suppose it is only a poet's fancy, at which one could but smile."

"Possibly, but I did not care to wound your ears."

"You are very good," said she, using the pleasant tu, "but all the same,
I am not so thin-skinned, as I have a closet which the duke has had
painted over with couples in various amorous attitudes. We go there
sometimes, and I assure you that I do not experience the slightest
sensation."

"That may be through a defect of temperament, for whenever I see
well-painted voluptuous pictures I feel myself on fire. I wonder that
while you and the duke look at them, you do not try to put some of them
into practice."

"We have only friendship for one another."

"Let him believe it who will."

"I am sure he is a man, but I am unable to say whether he is able to give
a woman any real proofs of his love."

"Yet he has a son."

"Yes, he has a child who calls him father; but he himself confesses that
he is only able to shew his manly powers with his wife."

"That's all nonsense, for you are made to give birth to amorous desires,
and a man who could live with you without being able to possess you ought
to cease to live."

"Do you really think so?"

"Dear Leonilda, if I were in the duke's place I would shew you what a man
who really loves can do."

"Caro Don Giacomo, I am delighted to hear you love me, but you will soon
forget me, as you are leaving Naples."

"Cursed be the gaming-table, for without it we might spend some
delightful hour together."

"The duke told me that you lost a thousand ducats yesterday evening like
a perfect gentleman. You must be very unlucky."

"Not always, but when I pl