Half merry and half sad, we awoke Emilie who was in a deep sleep, and then we started.  I went home and got into bed, not troubling myself about the storm of abuse with which Margarita greeted me.

The Florentine gave me a delicious dinner, overwhelmed me with protestations of friendship, and offered me his purse if I needed it.

He had seen Armelline, and had been pleased with her.  I had answered him sharply when he questioned me about her, and ever since he had never mentioned her name.

I felt grateful to him, and as if I must make him some return.

I asked him to dinner, and had Margarita to dine with us.  Not caring for her I should have been glad if he had fallen in love with her; there would have been no difficulty, I believe, on her part, and certainly not on mine; but nothing came of it.  She admired a trinket which hung from his watch-chain, and he begged my permission to give it her.  I told him to do so by all means, and that should have been enough; but the affair went no farther.

In a week all the arrangements for Emilie’s marriage had been made.  I gave her her grant, and the same day she was married and went away with her husband to Civita Vecchia.  Menicuccio, whose name I have not mentioned for some time, was well pleased with my relations with his sister, foreseeing advantages for himself, and still better pleased with the turn his own affairs were taking, for three days after Emilie’s wedding he married his mistress, and set up in a satisfactory manner.  When Emilie was gone the superioress gave Armelline a new companion.  She was only a few years older than my sweetheart, and very pretty; but she did not arouse a strong interest in my breast.  When violently in love no other woman has ever had much power over me.

The superioress told me that her name was Scholastica, and that she was well worthy of my esteem, being, as she said, as good as Emilie.  She expressed a hope that I would do my best to help Scholastica to marry a man whom she knew and who was in a good position.

This man was the son of a cousin of Scholastica’s.  She called him her nephew, though he was older than she.  The dispensation could easily be got for money, but if it was to be had for nothing I should have to make interest with the Holy Father.  I promised I would do my best in the matter.

The carnival was drawing to a close, and Scholastica had never seen an opera or a play.  Armelline wanted to see a ball, and I had at last succeeded in finding one where it seemed unlikely that I should be recognized.  However, it would have to be carefully managed, as serious consequences might ensue; so I asked the two friends if they would wear men’s clothes, to which they agreed very heartily.

I had taken a box at the Aliberti Theatre for the day after the ball, so I told the two girls to obtain the necessary permission from the superioress.

Though Armelline’s resistance and the presence of her new friend discouraged me, I procured everything requisite to transform them into two handsome lads.