I called the next day at two o’clock.  She was taking her siesta in bed, but as I had the privileges allowed to a person of no consequence she let me in directly.  She was young, pretty, lively, curious, and talkative; she had not enough patience to wait for my answer to her questions.  She struck me as a toy, well adapted to amuse a man of affairs, who felt the need of some distraction.  The cardinal saw her regularly three times a day; the first thing in the morning he called to ask if she had had a good night, at three o’clock in the afternoon he took coffee with her, and in the evening he met her at the assembly.  He always played at piquet, and played with such talent that he invariably lost six Roman sequins, no more and no less.  These losses of the cardinal’s made the princess the richest young wife in Rome.

Although the marquis was somewhat inclined to be jealous, he could not possibly object to his wife enjoying a revenue of eighteen hundred francs a month, and that without the least scandal, for everything was done in public, and the game was honestly conducted.  Why should not fortune fall in love with such a pretty woman?

The Prince of Santa Croce could not fail to appreciate the friendship of the cardinal for his wife, who gave him a child every year, and sometimes every nine months, in spite of the doctor’s warnings to beware of results.  It was said that to make up for his enforced abstinence during the last few days of his wife’s pregnancy, the prince immediately set to again when the child was being baptized.

The friendship of the cardinal for the prince’s wife also gave him the advantage of getting silks from Lyons without the Pope’s treasurer being able to say anything, as the packets were addressed to the French ambassador.  It must also be noted that the cardinal’s patronage kept other lovers from the house.  The High Constable Colonna was very much taken with her.  The prince had surprised this gentleman talking to the princess in a room of the palace and at an hour when she was certain that the cardinal would not be in the way.  Scarcely had the Colonna gone when the prince told his wife that she would accompany him into the country the next day.  She protested, saying that this sudden order was only a caprice and that her honour would not allow of her obeying him.  The prince, however, was very determined, and she would have been obliged to go if the cardinal had not come in and heard the story from the mouth of the innocent princess.  He shewed the husband that it was to his own interests to go into the country by himself, and to let his wife remain in Rome.  He spoke for her, assuring the prince that she would take more care for the future and avoid such meetings, always unpleasant in a house.

In less than a month I became the shadow of the three principal persons in the play.  I listened and admired and became as necessary to the personages as a marker at billiards.  When any of the parties were afflicted I consoled them with tales or amusing comments, and, naturally, they were grateful to me.  The cardinal, the prince, and his fair wife amused each other and offended no one.