at their houses.  We had a Count Velo, a Count Sesso, a Count Trento—­all very amiable companions.  They invited us to accompany them to the casino, where Madame C——­ shone by her charms and her coquettish manners.  After we had spent two hours in that place, P——­ C——­ invited all his new friends to supper, and it was a scene of gaiety and profusion.  The whole affair annoyed me greatly, and therefore I was not amiable; the consequence was that no one spoke to me.  I rose from my seat and went to bed, leaving the joyous company still round the festive board.  In the morning I came downstairs, had my breakfast, and looked about me.  The room was so full of goods that I did not see how P——­ C——­ could possibly pay for all with his six thousand florins.  He told me, however, that his business would be completed on the morrow, and that we were invited to a ball where all the nobility would be present.  The merchants with whom he had dealt came to dine with us, and the dinner was remarkable for its extreme profusion.

We went to the ball; but I soon got very weary of it, for every body was speaking to Madame C——­ and to P——­ C——­, who never uttered a word with any meaning, but whenever I opened my lips people would pretend not to hear me.  I invited a lady to dance a minuet; she accepted, but she looked constantly to the right or to the left, and seemed to consider me as a mere dancing machine.  A quadrille was formed, but the thing was contrived in such a manner as to leave me out of it, and the very lady who had refused me as a partner danced with another gentleman.  Had I been in good spirits I should certainly have resented such conduct, but I preferred to leave the ball-room.  I went to bed, unable to understand why the nobility of Vicenza treated me in such a way.  Perhaps they neglected me because I was not named in the letters of introduction given to P——­ C——­, but I thought that they might have known the laws of common politeness.  I bore the evil patiently, however, as we were to leave the city the next day.

On Monday, the worthy pair being tired, they slept until noon, and after dinner P——­ C——­ went out to pay for the goods.

We were to go away early on the Tuesday, and I instinctively longed for that moment.  The counts whom P——­ C——­ had invited were delighted with his mistress, and they came to supper; but I avoided meeting them.

On the Tuesday morning I was duly informed that breakfast was ready, but as I did not answer the summons quickly enough the servant came up again, and told me that my wife requested me to make haste.  Scarcely had the word “wife” escaped his lips than I visited the cheek of the poor fellow with a tremendous smack, and in my rage kicked him downstairs, the bottom of which he reached in four springs, to the imminent risk of his neck.  Maddened with rage I entered the breakfast-room, and addressing myself to P——­ C——­, I asked him who was the scoundrel who had announced me in the hotel as the husband of Madame C——.  He answered that he did not know; but at the same moment the landlord came into the room with a big knife in his hand, and asked me why I had kicked his servant down the stairs.  I quickly drew a pistol, and threatening him with it I demanded imperatively from him the name of the person who had represented me as the husband of that woman.