Five or six days afterwards, the marchioness told me graciously that she had caught a sight of me in her reception-rooms.
"I was there, it is true, madam; but I had no idea that I had had the honour to be seen by your ladyship." "Oh! I see everybody.

They tell me that you have wit." "If it is not a mistake on the part of your informants, your ladyship gives me very good news." "Oh! they are excellent judges." "Then, madam, those persons must have honoured me with their conversation; otherwise, it is not likely that they would have been able to express such an opinion." "No doubt; but let me see you often at my receptions." Our conversation had been overheard by those who were around; his excellency the cardinal told me that, when the marchioness addressed herself particularly to me in French, my duty was to answer her in the same language, good or bad.

The cunning politician Gama took me apart, and remarked that my repartees were too smart, too cutting, and that, after a time, I would be sure to displease.

I had made considerable progress in French; I had given up my lessons, and practice was all I required.

I was then in the habit of calling sometimes upon Lucrezia in the morning, and of visiting in the evening Father Georgi, who was acquainted with the excursion to Frascati, and had not expressed any dissatisfaction.
Two days after the sort of command laid upon me by the marchioness, I presented myself at her reception.