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She looked so fresh and happy that I longed to kiss her, but I was obliged to restrain myself as she was surrounded by her pretty maids. The better to throw any spies off the scent I began to make love to Anastasia, and Leonilda pretended to encourage me. I feigned a passionate desire, and I could see that I should not have much trouble in gaining my suit.
Before he went, however, he said he should like to present me to a lady whom he was sure I should be very glad to see again. The first persons I thought of were Donna Leonilda, or Donna Lucrezia, her mother; but what was my surprise to see Agatha, the dancer with whom I had been in love at Turin after abandoning the Corticelli.
"Here, sweet marchioness, is the key to my room. Happy the mortal whom you deign to command." Leonilda gave the key to the page, a pretty boy, and told him to see that all my belongings were carefully taken to the castle. Her lady-in-waiting was very fair.
"That's all nonsense, for you are made to give birth to amorous desires, and a man who could live with you without being able to possess you ought to cease to live." "Do you really think so?" "Dear Leonilda, if I were in the duke's place I would shew you what a man who really loves can do."
It would be much better, she said, for us to talk in my room, where there would be no need of putting out the light. She added that I had better go to bed, as then she would feel certain that she was not tiring me in any way. I could not say no, but I flattered myself that I would keep my strength intact for Leonilda. I reckoned without my host, as the proverb goes.
"It's eighteen years ago," said he, "since I chose M. Casanova as the companion of your studies." I delighted him by giving him a brief account of my adventures in Rome with Cardinal Acquaviva. As we went out, he begged me to come and see him often. Towards the evening the duke said, "If you go to the Opera Buffa you will please Leonilda." He gave me the number of her box, and added,
In the meanwhile I leave you with your daughter; we shall see each other again at suppertime." He went out and I dined with my wife and daughter in the best of spirits. I spent almost the whole afternoon with Leonilda, keeping within the bounds of decency, less, perhaps, out of respect to morality, than because of my labours of the night before.
"Let us go directly; I cannot rest till I have seen my Leonilda and the good husband God has given her. Have they any children?" "No, unluckily for her, as after his death the property passes to his relations. But Leonilda will be a rich woman for all that; she will have a hundred thousand ducats of her own." "You have never married." "No."
There was the same sparkling glance, that fresh complexion, those perfect shapes, those beautiful lips in fine, all that had charmed my youthful eyes. We mutely caressed each other. Leonilda gave and received the tenderest kisses without seeming to notice what desires she might cause to arise; no doubt she knew that as her father I should have strength to resist, and she was right.
The marchioness tried to calm my transports by talking of her good husband. Donna Lucrezia remarked our mutual emotion as I held Leonilda in my arms, and warned us to be careful. She then left us to walk in a different part of the garden.
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