When I saw the duke he said,—­

“Well, Don Giacomo, you have spent all the morning with my mistress; do you still wish to marry her?”

“More than ever; what do you mean?”

“Nothing; and as you have passed this trial to which I purposely subjected you, we will discuss your union tomorrow, and I hope you will make this charming woman happy, for she will be an excellent wife.”

“I agree with you.”

When we went to Monte Leone’s in the evening, we saw a banker with a good deal of gold before him.  The duke told me he was Don Marco Ottoboni.  He was a fine-looking man, but he held the cards so closely together in his left hand that I could not see them.  This did not inspire me with confidence, so I only punted a ducat at a time.  I was persistently unlucky, but I only lost a score of ducats.  After five or six deals the banker, asked me politely why I staked such small sums against him.

“Because I can’t see half the pack,” I replied, “and I am afraid of losing.”

Some of the company laughed at my answer.

Next night I broke the bank held by the Prince the Cassaro, a pleasant and rich nobleman, who asked me to give him revenge, and invited me to supper at his pretty house at Posilipo, where he lived with a virtuosa of whom he had become amorous at Palermo.  He also invited the Duke de Matalone and three or four other gentlemen.  This was the only occasion on which I held the bank while I was at Naples, and I staked six thousand ducats after warning the prince that as it was the eve of my departure I should only play for ready money.

He lost ten thousand ducats, and only rose from the table because he had no more money.  Everybody left the room, and I should have done the same if the prince’s mistress had not owed me a hundred ducats.  I continued to deal in the hope that she would get her money back, but seeing that she still lost I put down the cards, and told her that she must pay me at Rome.  She was a handsome and agreeable woman, but she did not inspire me with any passions, no doubt because my mind was occupied with another, otherwise I should have drawn a bill on sight, and paid myself without meddling with her purse.  It was two o’clock in the morning when I got to bed.

Both Leonilda and myself wished to see Caserta before leaving Naples, and the duke sent us there in a carriage drawn by six mules, which went faster than most horses.  Leonilda’s governess accompanied us.

The day after, we settled the particulars of our marriage in a conversation which lasted for two hours.