All at once our position seemed to me strangely similar to that
of the ill-starred lovers of Rimini.
But the next moment I was sane again. She had withdrawn her hand, and had
taken the volume to restore it to its shelf.
Ah, no! At Rimini there had been two fools. Here there was but one. Let
me make an end of him by persuading him of his folly.
Yet Giuliana did nothing to assist me in that task. She returned from the
book-shelf, and in passing lightly swept her fingers over my hair.
"Come, Agostino; let us walk in the garden," said she.
We went, my mood now overpast. I was as sober and self-contained as was my
habit. And soon thereafter came my Lord Gambara--a rare thing to happen in
the afternoon.
Awhile the three of us were together in the garden, talking of trivial
matters. Then she fell to wrangling with him concerning something that
Caro had written and of which she had the manuscript. In the end she
begged me would I go seek the writing in her chamber. I went, and hunted
where she had bidden me and elsewhere, and spent a good ten minutes vainly
in the task. Chagrined that I could not discover the thing, I went into
the library, thinking that it might be there.
Doctor Fifanti was writing busily at the table when I intruded. He looked
up, thrusting his horn-rimmed spectacles high upon his peaked forehead
"What the devil!" quoth he very testily.
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