The conversation dragged a little at first, as if all were oppressed by the thought of the imminent leave-taking.

Amalia seemed busied with her girls, concerned to see that they were not helped to too much or too little.

Olivo, somewhat irrelevantly, began to speak of a trifling lawsuit he had just won against a neighboring landowner.
Next he referred to a business journey to Mantua and Cremona, which he would shortly have to undertake.

Casanova expressed the hope that ere long he would be able to entertain his friend in Venice, a city which, by a strange chance, Olivo had never visited.

Amalia had seen the place of wonder as a child.