Nor need you be at a loss for a pretext as to the necessity for perfectly mute caresses when you return at night, as you will promise to return.

To avert all danger of discovery at the last moment, I shall, when the time comes for me to leave, act as if I heard a suspicious noise outside the window.

Seizing my cloak,--or rather yours, which you must of course lend me for the occasion--I shall vanish through the window, never to return.

For, of course, I shall take my leave this evening.

But half-way back to Mantua, telling the coachman that I have forgotten some important papers, I shall return here on foot.