“Quick!  Send for the tradesmen.  We will choose what we want, and I will pay.”

Rinaldi went out to summon a jeweller, a shoemaker, a stocking-maker, and a perfumer.  I spent thirty sequins in what I considered necessary, but then I noticed that there was no English point on her mask, and burst out again.  The father brought in a milliner, who adorned the mask with an ell of lace for which I paid twelve sequins.  Irene was in great delight, but her father and mother would have preferred to have the money in their pockets, and at bottom they were right.

When Irene put on her fine clothes I thought her delicious, and I saw what an essential thing dress is to a woman.

“Be ready,” said I, “before the time for the opera to-morrow, for before going to the ball we will sup together in a room which belongs to me, where we shall be quite at our ease.  You know what to expect,” I added, embracing her.  She answered me with an ardent kiss.

As I took leave of her father, he asked me where I was going after leaving Milan.

“To Marseilles, then to Paris, and then to London, at which place I intend stopping a year.”

“Your flight from The Leads was wonderfully lucky.”

“Yes, but I risked my life.”

“You have certainly deserved all your good fortune.”

“Do you think so?  I have only used my fortune—­in subservience to my pleasures.”

“I wonder you do not have a regular mistress:” 

“The reason is, that I like to be my own master.  A mistress at my coat-tails would be more troublesome than a wife; she would be an obstacle to the numerous pleasant adventures I encounter at every town.  For example, if I had a mistress I should not be able to take the charming Irene to the ball to-morrow.”

“You speak like a wise man.”

“Yes, though my wisdom is by no means of the austere kind.”

In the evening I went to the opera, and should no doubt have gone to the card-table if I had not seen Cesarino in the pit.  I spent two delightful hours with him.  He opened his heart to me, and begged me to plead for him with his sister to get her consent to his going to sea, for which he had a great longing.  He said that he might make a large fortune by a judicious course of trading.  After a temperate supper with my dear boy, I went to bed.  The next morning the fine young officer, the Marchioness of Q——­’s brother, came and asked me to give him a breakfast.  He said he had communicated my proposal to his sister, and that she had replied that I must be making a fool of him, as it was not likely that a man who lived as I did would be thinking of marrying.

“I did not tell you that I aspired to the honour of marrying her.”

“No, and I did not say anything about marriage; but that’s what the girls are always aiming at.”

“I must go and disabuse her of the notion.”

“That’s a good idea; principals are always the best in these affairs.  Come at two o’clock, I shall be dining there, and as I have got to speak to her cousin you will be at liberty to say what you like.”