I began dinner in a foul humour.
But my guests had brought to table the finest remedy for ill temper. They ate with such frank pleasure that my resentment could not survive the first course.
Cecilia laughed at every trifle; Marina answered her with equal gaiety; Bellino watched us with a composed smile.
I soon decided that cheerfulness was better than sulking and I resolved to make up for my disappointment with the two charming sisters, who seemed well disposed to enjoy a frolic.
We drew our chairs near the fire. The chestnuts cracked in the ashes, the Cyprus wine warmed our tongues, and the two sisters, seated on either side of me, accepted my attentions with a freedom that promised an agreeable evening.
I began by distributing a few innocent kisses right and left. Cecilia returned mine with laughter. Marina lowered her eyes, then offered her cheek again.
But very soon my greedy hands touched every part which my lips could not kiss, and Cecilia, as well as Marina, delighted in the game.
Seeing that Bellino was smiling, I kissed him likewise, and his half-open ruffle attracting my hand, I ventured and went in without resistance. The chisel of Praxiteles had never carved a finer bosom!
"Oh! this is enough," I exclaimed; "I can no longer doubt that you are a beautifully-formed woman!"
"It is," he replied, "the defect of all castrati."
"No, it is the perfection of all handsome women. Bellino, believe me, I am enough of a good judge to distinguish between the deformed breast of a castrato, and that of a beautiful woman; and your alabaster bosom belongs to a young beauty of seventeen summers."
Who does not know that love, inflamed by all that can excite it, never stops in young people until it is satisfied, and that one favour granted kindles the wish for a greater one?
I had begun well, I tried to go further and to smother with burning kisses that which my hand was pressing so ardently, but the false Bellino, as if he had only just been aware of the illicit pleasure I was enjoying, rose and ran away.
His retreat inflamed me more than compliance would have done. Nothing sharpens appetite like a door half opened and then shut. I felt that I must either satisfy my desires or evaporate them.
"Cecilia," I said, turning to his pupil, "sing us a few Neapolitan airs."
I went out to see the banker and took from him a letter of exchange at sight upon Bologna for the sum he owed me.
That business done, I returned to the inn, supped lightly with Cecilia and Marina, and gave Petronio orders to secure a carriage for the morning.
The day seemed finished.
I was locking my door when Cecilia slipped in, half dressed, her hair loose over her shoulders and a smile on her lips.
"Bellino begs you to take him to Rimini," she said. "He is engaged to sing there in an opera after Easter."
"Go and tell him, my dear little seraph, that I am ready to do what he wishes, if he will only grant me in your presence what I desire."
She tilted her head.
"And what do you desire?"
"I want to know for a certainty whether he is a man or a woman."
Cecilia laughed, though not without embarrassment, and ran out.
She returned a few minutes later.
"Bellino has gone to bed," she said. "But if you delay your departure by one day, he promises to satisfy you tomorrow."
"Tell me the truth, Cecilia, and I will give you six sequins."
"I cannot earn them," she said. "for I have never seen him naked, and I cannot swear to his being a girl. But he must be a man, otherwise he would not have been allowed to perform here."
"Well," I said, "I will remain until the day after to-morrow, provided you keep me company tonight."
She came a step nearer.
"Do you love me very much?"
"Very much indeed, if you show yourself very kind."
"I will be very kind," she said, with a blush. "For I love you dearly likewise. I will go and tell my mother."
"Of course you have a lover?"
"I never had one."
She left my room, and in a short time came back full of joy, saying that her mother believed me an honest man; she of course meant a generous one.
Cecilia locked the door and came into my arms at once, covering me with kisses.
She was pretty, charming, but I was not in love with her, and I was not able to say to her as to Lucrezia: "You have made me so happy!"
But she said it herself, and I did not feel much flattered, although I pretended to believe her.
In the morning, when I woke, I greeted her tenderly and gave her three doubloons. The gift delighted her, and must have delighted her mother still more.
Then I sent her away without wasting either her time or mine in promising everlasting constancy --a promise as absurd as it is trifling, and which the most virtuous man ought never to make even to the most beautiful of women.
After breakfast I called the landlord and ordered an excellent supper for five. I expected Don Sancio that evening, and I felt certain he would not refuse to honour me by accepting my invitation. To prepare myself for the feast, I resolved to go without dinner.
The Bolognese family did not require to imitate my diet to insure a good appetite for the evening.
I then sent for Bellino.
He entered with his usual composure, that half-smiling air which promised everything and granted nothing.
"You remember your promise," I said.
"What promise?"
"The one by which you undertook to satisfy my doubts today."
He laughed.
"The day is not over yet and I am certain that I shall travel with you."
"I warn you fairly," I answered, "that you cannot accompany me unless I am fully satisfied."
"Well, I will satisfy you."
"Shall we go and take a walk together?"
"Willingly; I will dress myself."
While I was waiting for Bellino, Marina came in.
Her face had lost its usual gaiety. She stood near the door and looked at me as if I had wronged her.
"What have I done," she said, "to deserve your contempt?"
"My contempt? My dear Marina, I was not aware I had shown you any."
"Cecilia has passed the night with you. Bellino will go with you tomorrow. I am the most unfortunate of us all."
She said this with such injured seriousness that I nearly laughed, but tears were close behind her eyes, and laughter would have been cruel.
"Do you want money?" I asked.
"No," she said. "For I love you."
"But, Marinetta, you are too young."
"I am much stronger than my sister."
"Perhaps you have a lover."
"Oh! no."
"Very well," I said. "We can try this evening."
Her face cleared at once.
"Good! Then I will tell mother to prepare clean sheets for to-morrow morning; otherwise everybody here would know that I slept with you."
This reply left me silent for a moment. I could not help admiring the fruits of a theatrical education, and was much amused.
Bellino soon returned. We left the inn together and walked towards the harbour.
The air carried the smell of salt, tar, and wet rope. Several vessels lay at anchor, their masts crossing the pale sky. Among them I noticed a Venetian ship and a Turkish tartan.
We boarded the Venetian first and looked about with interest. I hoped to meet someone from my own country, but saw no familiar face.
We stayed only a little while, then we rowed towards the Turkish tartan, where the most romantic surprise awaited me.
The first person I saw on board was the beautiful Greek woman whom I had left at Ancona seven months earlier, when I quitted the lazaretto.
She was seated near the old captain, of whom I enquired, without appearing to notice his handsome slave,
"Have you any fine goods to sell?"
The Turk rose and led Bellino and me into his cabin. The Greek followed. While the captain opened boxes and spread his wares before us, I let my eyes pass over her only once.
That single glance was enough.
Her face, which she kept lowered, had changed colour; her eyes, when they met mine, shone with all the pleasure she dared not speak.
I examined the goods and found fault with everything.
"This is not what I want," I said. "I would buy willingly, but only something pretty enough to please your better half."
The old captain smiled. The Greek leaned towards him and whispered a few words in his ear. He nodded and left the cabin.
The moment he was out of sight, this new Aspasia threw herself in my arms, saying, "Now is your time!"
I would not be found wanting in courage, and taking the most convenient position in such a place, I did to her in one instant that which her old master had not done in five years.
Before our desire had reached its end, she heard the captain's step. She tore herself from my arms with a deep sigh, placed herself before me with admirable presence of mind, and gave me time to repair the disorder of my dress.
That small service may have saved my life, or at least my purse, which I would have been forced to empty in order to compromise the affair.
In that curious situation, I was highly amused at the surprise of Bellino, who stood there trembling like an aspen leaf.
The trifles chosen by the handsome slave cost me only thirty sequins.
"Spolaitis," she said softly in her own language.
The Turk told her she ought to kiss me. At that, she covered her face with her hands and ran away.
I left the ship more sad than pleased, for I regretted that, in spite of her courage, she should have enjoyed only an incomplete pleasure.
As soon as we were in the row boat, Bellino finally recovered from his fright and found his tongue again.
He had been pale on the tartan. Now the sea air restored him, though not his composure. He sat opposite me, watching my face as if he expected to discover some visible sign of monstrosity.
"You have just made me acquainted with a phenomenon," he said, "the reality of which I could not admit, and which gave me a very strange idea of your nature, and as far as the Greek girl is concerned, I could not make her out, unless you should assure me that every woman in her country was like her."
He added. "And if that is the case, how unhappy they must be!"
I smiled.
"Do you think," I asked, "that coquettes are happier?"
"No, but I think that when a woman yields to love, she should not be conquered before she has fought with her own desires; she should not give way to the first impulse of a lustful desire and abandon herself to the first man who takes her fancy, like an animal--the slave of sense.
"You must confess that the Greek woman has given you an evident proof that you had taken her fancy, but that she has at the same time given you a proof not less certain of her beastly lust, and of an effrontery which exposed her to the shame of being repulsed, for she could not possibly know whether you would feel as well disposed for her as she felt for you.
"She is very handsome, and it all turned out well, but the adventure has thrown me into a whirlpool of agitation which I cannot yet control."
I could have ended Bellino perplexity with a simple explanation, but such a confession would not have ministered to my self-love.
Besides, if Bellino was the woman I suspected, I wished her to believe that the great matter was, after all, not so grave a thing in my eyes, and that it was not worthwhile employing cunning strategems to obtain it.
So I let him trouble himself.
We returned to the inn.
Towards evening I heard the wheels of Don Sancio's carriage roll into the yard. I went down at once to receive him.
"My dear Don Sancio," I said, "I hope you will forgive my boldness. I counted so much on your kindness that I have ordered supper, certain you would not refuse me the honour of your company. Bellino will be with us."
He bowed with gravity, thanked me for the pleasure I offered him, and accepted.
The supper justified my confidence. The dishes were excellent, the Spanish wines better still, and our guests brought what no cook can provide.
Bellino sang with that dangerous sweetness which had already disturbed me more than once; Cecilia followed with a gaiety that filled the room. Marina laughed at everything, and Don Sancio, who had entered with ceremony, soon surrendered to pleasure.
At midnight Don Sancio rose.
"I cannot call myself perfectly satisfied," he said, "unless you promise to sup with me tomorrow evening, with the same company."
The invitation forced me to postpone my departure for another day. The sacrifice was not severe. I accepted.
As soon as he had gone, I turned to Bellino.
"Now," I said, "it is time to keep your promise."
He smiled, already retreating.
"Marinetta is waiting for you, and as you are not leaving tomorrow, I shall find an opportunity to satisfy your doubts."
He wished me good night and left the room before I could press him further.