ace--

"Alas! madam, what change is this in the lady Florida? I was never so
astonished before, for, as I have told you, I thought I had a share in
her favour; but I now see clearly that I have lost it all. While she was
being brought up by you, she was, I think, no less discreet or virtuous
than she is at present; however, she had then no qualms of conscience
about speaking with any one. But now, when I sought to look at her, she
would not suffer me to do so. When I saw this behaviour on her part I
thought I must be dreaming, and asked her for her hand to kiss it after
the manner of the country. This she utterly refused me. I acknowledge,
madam, that then I acted wrongfully, and I entreat your pardon for it;
for I took her hand, as it were by force, and kissed it. I asked nothing
more of her, but I believe that she intends my death, for she called out
to you as you know. Why she did this I cannot tell, unless indeed she
feared that I had some other purpose in view. Nevertheless, madam, be
this as it may, I confess that I am in the wrong; for although she ought
to love all who are devoted to you, fortune wills it that I, who am of
all most attached to her, am banished from her good graces. Still, I
shall ever continue the same both to you and to her; and I entreat you
to continue me in your good favour since, by no fault of my own, I have
now lost hers."

The Countess, who partly believed and partly suspected him, went up to
her daughter and asked--"Why did you call me so loudly?"

Florida replied that she had felt afraid; and, although the Countess
questioned her minutely on many points, she would give no other reply.
Finding that she had escaped from her enemy she deemed him sufficiently
punished by the failure of his attempt.

After the Countess had had a long conversation with Amadour, she
suffered him to speak again in her presence with Florida, to see how
he would behave. He said but little, save that he thanked her for not
having confessed the truth to her mother, and begged that since she had
expelled him from her heart, she would at least allow no other to take
his place.

"If my voice had not been my only means of defending myself," she
replied, "it would never have been heard; and from me you shall have no
worse punishment, if you do not force me to it by troubling me again as
you have done. Do not fear that I can ever love another; since I have
not found the good I wished for in a heart that I considere