His eminence was in the habit of receiving every evening, and his rooms were thronged with the highest nobility of Rome; I had never attended these receptions.  The Abbe Gama told me that I ought to do so as well as he did, without any pretension.  I followed his advice and went; nobody spoke to me, but as I was unknown everyone looked at me and enquired who I was.  The Abbe Gama asked me which was the lady who appeared to me the most amiable, and I shewed one to him; but I regretted having done so, for the courtier went to her, and of course informed her of what I had said.  Soon afterwards I saw her look at me through her eye-glass and smile kindly upon me.  She was the Marchioness G——­, whose ‘cicisbeo’ was Cardinal S——­ C——.

On the very day I had fixed to spend the evening with Donna Lucrezia the worthy advocate called upon me.  He told me that if I thought I was going to prove I was not in love with his wife by staying away I was very much mistaken, and he invited me to accompany all the family to Testaccio, where they intended to have luncheon on the following Thursday.  He added that his wife knew my ode by heart, and that she had read it to the intended husband of Angelique, who had a great wish to make my acquaintance.  That gentleman was likewise a poet, and would be one of the party to Testaccio.  I promised the advocate I would come to his house on the Thursday with a carriage for two.

At that time every Thursday in the month of October was a festival day in Rome.  I went to see Donna Cecilia in the evening, and we talked about the excursion the whole time.  I felt certain that Donna Lucrezia looked forward to it with as much pleasure as I did myself.  We had no fixed plan, we could not have any, but we trusted to the god of love, and tacitly placed our confidence in his protection.

I took care that Father Georgi should not hear of that excursion before I mentioned it to him myself, and I hastened to him in order to obtain his permission to go.  I confess that, to obtain his leave, I professed the most complete indifference about it, and the consequence was that the good man insisted upon my going, saying that it was a family party, and that it was quite right for me to visit the environs of Rome and to enjoy myself in a respectable way.

I went to Donna Cecilia’s in a carriage which I hired from a certain Roland, a native of Avignon, and if I insist here upon his name it is because my readers will meet him again in eighteen years, his acquaintance with me having had very important results.  The charming widow introduced me to Don Francisco, her intended son-in-law, whom she represented as a great friend of literary men, and very deeply learned himself.  I accepted it as gospel, and behaved accordingly; yet I thought he looked rather heavy and not sufficiently elated for a young man on the point of marrying such a pretty girl as Angelique.  But he had plenty of good-nature and plenty of money, and these are better than learning and gallantry.