this she gave not a thought.

Amadour, however, had a hard task to escape the observation of those
who knew by experience how to distinguish a lover's looks from another
man's; for when Florida, thinking no evil, came and spoke familiarly to
him, the fire that was hidden in his heart so consumed him that he could
not keep the colour from rising to his face or sparks of flame from
darting from his eyes. Thus, in order that none might be any the wiser,
he began to pay court to a very beautiful lady named Paulina, a woman
so famed for beauty in her day that few men who saw her escaped from her
toils.

This Paulina had heard how Amadour had made love at Barcelona and
Perpignan, insomuch that he had gained the affection of the highest and
most beautiful ladies in the land, especially that of a certain Countess
of Palamos, who was esteemed the first for beauty among all the ladies
of Spain; and she told him that she greatly pitied him, since, after so
much good fortune, he had married such an ugly wife. Amadour, who well
understood by these words that she had a mind to supply his need, made
her the fairest speeches he could devise, seeking to conceal the truth
by persuading her of a falsehood. But she, being subtle and experienced
in love, was not to be put off with mere words; and feeling sure that
his heart was not to be satisfied with such love as she could give him,
she suspected he wished to make her serve as a cloak, and so kept close
watch upon his eyes. These, however, knew so well how to dissemble, that
she had nothing to guide her but the barest suspicion.

Nevertheless, her observation sorely troubled Amadour; for Florida, who
was ignorant of all these wiles, often spoke to him before Paulina in
such a familiar fashion that he had to make wondrous efforts to compel