Paolina was industriously pursuing her task in the chapel of the Cardinal’s palace.  Ludovico was not so frequently with her there as he had been while she was at work in San Vitale.  But there were evident reasons why this was necessarily the case.  The chapel in question is a private one, and is accessible only by passing through a portion of the Cardinal’s residence.  At San Vitale Ludovico needed to take nobody into his confidence, when he climbed to Paolina’s scaffolding to be by her side while she worked, save the old sacristan.  But to have joined her at her work in the Cardinal’s palace, he must have knocked at the door of the residence, and told the servants what he wanted.

And that would have been obviously inconvenient, even without mentioning the fact that the Lady Violante, to whom the gentleman ought to have been addressing himself, passed much of her time at the palace, and might very possibly have been met by him there.

It was true that, ever since the ball at the Castelmare palazzo, on the second day of the year, Ludovico had felt pretty nearly sure that Violante was as desirous of escaping from the marriage which had been arranged as he was himself.  But it did not at all follow that it would be an easy matter to break it off.  Of course it was not to be expected that Violante herself could take any active step towards refusing to fulfil the promise that her family had made for her.  That would be for him to do.  And except as regarded his intercourse with the lady, and her personal feelings, the task of doing so was hardly rendered any the easier by the knowledge that he would be consulting her wishes as well as his own.

It would hardly, therefore, have done in any way for him to have been visiting the young artist in the Cardinal Legate’s chapel.

The intercourse, however, between Ludovico and Paolina was much pleasanter and more unrestrained than it had been before that explanation, which had ensued between them.  He was a frequent visitor at the house in the Via di Sta.  Eufemia in the evening; and the happy hours were passed by them on the perfectly understood footing of mutual betrothal.

And Ludovico was perfectly honest and sincere in all that he said to Paolina.  He said nothing to her that he did not equally say to himself.  And if his conduct under the circumstances was not exactly what a father or brother of Paolina might have desired it to be, the fault arose from the indecision of character, which belonged to a weak man accustomed to self-indulgence.  There was difficulty and annoyance before him; and instead of meeting it, as a strong man would have done, he turned from it, and was content to put off the evil day, contenting himself with the enjoyment of that which was passing.  He marvelled somewhat at the ease, with which he was permitted to pass evening after evening with his mistress,—­at the absence of surveillance, of which he was conscious,—­and at the silence of his uncle as to both his visits