After the sale she had refused to go to Laura Miano's.

A fierce desire assailed him to see her, to speak to her again.

The invitation at the Palazzo Farnese was for ten o'clock--half past ten found him there waiting anxiously.
He waited long.

The rooms filled rapidly; the dancing began.

In the Carracci gallery the divinities of fashionable Rome vied in beauty with the Ariadnes, the Galateas, the Auroras, the Dianas of the frescos; couples whirled past; heads glittering with jewels drooped or raised themselves, bosoms panted, the breath came fast through parted crimson lips.
'You are not dancing, Sperelli ?' asked Gabriella Barbarisi, a girl brown as the _oliva speciosa_, as she passed him on the arm of her partner, fanning herself and smiling to show a dimple she had at the corner of her mouth.
'Yes--later on,' Andrea responded hastily--'later on.' Heedless of introductions or greetings, his torment increased with every moment of this fruitless expectation, and he roamed aimlessly from room to room.