d sent for a surgeon,
enquiring how many hours it would require to restore her from her
agitation; and he named the time. I then said, 'I give you that
time, and more if you require it; but at the expiration of this
prescribed period, if _she_ does not leave the house, _I_ will.'

"All my people were consternated. They had always been frightened
at her, and were now paralysed: they wanted me to apply to the
police, to guard myself, &c. &c. like a pack of snivelling servile
boobies as they were. I did nothing of the kind, thinking that I
might as well end that way as another; besides, I had been used to
savage women, and knew their ways.

"I had her sent home quietly after her recovery, and never saw her
since, except twice at the opera, at a distance amongst the
audience. She made many attempts to return, but no more violent
ones. And this is the story of Margarita Cogni, as far as it
relates to me.

"I forgot to mention that she was very devout, and would cross
herself if she heard the prayer time strike.

"She was quick in reply; as, for instance--One day when she had
made me very angry with beating somebody or other, I called her a
_cow_ (_cow_, in Italian, is a sad affront). I called her 'Vacca.'
She turned round, courtesied, and answered, 'Vacca _tua_,
'celenza' (_i.e._ eccelenza). '_Your_ cow, please your Excellency.'
In short, she was, as I said before, a very fine animal, of
considerable beauty and energy, with many good and several amusing
qualities, but wild as a witch and fierce as a demon. She used to
boast publicly of her ascendency over me, contrasting it with that
of other women, and assigning for it sundry reasons. True it was,
that they all tried to get her away, and no one succeeded till her
own absurdity helped them.

"I omitted to tell you her answer, when I reproached her for
snatching Madame Contarini's mask at the Cavalchina. I represented
to her that she was a lady of high birth, 'una Dama,' &c. She
answered, 'Se ella e dama _mi_ (_io_) son Veneziana;'--'If she is a
lady, I am a Venetian.' This would have been fine a hundred years
ago, the pride of the nation rising up against the pride of
aristocracy: but, alas! Venice, and her people, and her nobles, are
alike returning fast to the ocean; and where there is