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Updated: June 21, 2025
She had thought before seeing Miss Lorenzi that she understood the situation, and how it had come about. She had said to Stephen, "I understand." Now, it seemed to her that she had boasted in a silly, childish way. She had not understood. She had not begun to understand. Suddenly the girl felt very old and experienced, and miserably wise in the ways of the world.
"I am curious to know how you will manage that, Lieutenant Lorenzi. There is not a soul, in Mantua or elsewhere, who would lend you as much as ten ducats, not to speak of two thousand, especially to-day. For to-morrow you will be on the march, and who can tell whether you will ever return?"
He knew from personal experience that such men as Lorenzi have their own peculiar code of honor, a code which cannot be written in formal propositions, but which they can be relied upon to observe. He packed Lorenzi's cloak in the top of the valise. Having stowed away upon his person the remaining gold pieces, he took a final glance round the room which he was never likely to revisit.
"You know perfectly well," rejoined Lorenzi imperturbably, "that I shall ride straight to Mantua, and not to your place, to which you were so good as to invite me yesterday." "You can ride to bell for all I care!" said the other. Lorenzi politely took his leave of the rest of the company, and, to Casanova's astonishment, departed without making any suitable retort to the Marchese.
For a moment, Casanova was in doubt as to who it was that Lorenzi reminded him of. Then he realized that his own image stood before him, the image of himself as he had been thirty years before. "Have I been reincarnated in his form?" Casanova asked himself. "But I must have died before that could happen." It flashed through his mind: "Have I not been dead for a long time?
"Are you satisfied now, Signor Marchese?" enquired Lorenzi, moving as if to go. "I am satisfied," answered the Marchese, with an evil chuckle; "all the more, seeing that the rings are stolen." Lorenzi turned sharply, clenching his fist as if about to strike the Marchese. Olivo and the Abbate seized Lorenzi's arm.
"Does anyone know," he asked, "whether we shall side with Spain or with France?" "I don't think Lieutenant Lorenzi will care a straw about that," suggested the Abbate. "All he wants is a chance to prove his military prowess." "He has done so already," said Amalia. "He was in the battle at Pavia three years ago." Marcolina said not a word. Casanova knew enough.
He then packed his valise, and listened for Lorenzi's footsteps with an interest which grew keener from moment to moment. Before the time was up, Lorenzi, knocking once at the door, entered, wearing a dark blue riding-cloak. Without a word, he slipped the cloak from his shoulders and let it fall to the floor, where it lay between the two men, a shapeless mass of cloth.
She did not speak, but walked faster; and Victoria, realizing that their talk was to be interrupted by somebody, looked round, expecting Lady MacGregor or Saidee. "It is Miss Lorenzi," Stephen said, in a low voice. "I don't know how or why she has come here. But for your sake it will be better if you go now, at once, and let me talk to her."
He tried once more to persuade the Marchese to resume the game for the sake of Lorenzi, though he hardly knew what moved him. The Marchese refused with a yet more decisive headshake. Lorenzi rose, saying: "I shall have the honor, Signor Marchese, of handing the amount I owe you to you personally, before noon to-morrow." The Marchese laughed drily.
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