When our friends came down we began a very interesting conversation, which had to be conducted in a low tone for fear of our being overheard.  We could not talk at our ease till the other visitors had taken their leave.  My young friend’s mistress was a very pretty girl, but his sister was a ravishing beauty.  She had just entered on her sixteenth year, but she was tall and her figure well developed; in short, she enchanted me.  I thought I had never seen a whiter skin or blacker hair and eyebrows and eyes, but still more charming was the sweetness of her voice and expression, and the naive simplicity of her expressions.  Her governess who was ten or twelve years older than she was, was a woman of an extremely interesting expression; she was pale and melancholy looking, no doubt from the fires which she had been forced to quench within her.  She delighted me by telling me of the confusion which the new regulations had caused in the house.

“The mother-superior is well pleased,” she said, “and all my young companions are overjoyed; but the older ones whom circumstance has made into bigots are scandalized at everything.  The superior has already given orders for windows to be made in the dark parlours, though the old women say that she cannot go beyond the concessions she has already received.  To this the superior answered that as free communication had been allowed, it would be absurd to retain the darkness.  She has also given orders for the alteration of the double grating, as there was only a single one in the large parlour.”

I thought the superior must be a woman of intelligence, and expressed a desire to see her.  Emilie obtained this pleasure for me the following day.

Emilie was the friend of Armelline, Menicuccio’s sister.  This first visit lasted two hours, and seemed all too short.  Menicuccio spoke to his well-beloved at the other grating.

I went away, after having given them ten Roman crowns as before.  I kissed Armelline’s fair hands, and as she felt the contact of my lips her face was suffused by a vivid blush.  Never had the lips of man touched more dainty hands before, and she looked quite astounded at the ardour with which I kissed them.

I went home full of love for her, and without heeding the obstacles in my path I gave reins to my passion, which seemed to me the most ardent I had ever experienced.

My young friend was in an ocean of bliss.  He had declared his love, and the girl had said that she would gladly become his wife if he could get the cardinal’s consent.  As this consent only depended on his ability to keep himself, I promised to give him a hundred crowns and my patronage.  He had served his time as a tailor’s apprentice, and was in a position to open a shop of his own.

“I envy your lot,” said I, “for your happiness is assured, while I, though I love your sister, despair of possessing her.”

“Are you married then?” he asked.