at their ease without diminishing their mutual respect for one another.

Leonilda had already turned my first feeling of admiration into something
much warmer, and the opera, which lasted for five hours, seemed over in a
moment.

After the two ladies had gone the duke said, "Now we must part, unless
you are fond of games of chance."

"I don't object to them when I am to play with good hands."

"Then follow me; ten or twelve of my friends will play faro, and then sit
down to a cold collation, but I warn you it is a secret, as gaming is
forbidden. I will answer for you keeping your own counsel, however."

"You may do so."

He took me to the Duke de Monte Leone's. We went up to the third floor,
passed through a dozen rooms, and at last reached the gamester's chamber.
A polite-looking banker, with a bank of about four hundred sequins, had
the cards in his hands. The duke introduced me as his friend, and made me
sit beside him. I was going to draw out my purse, but I was told that
debts were not paid for twenty-four hours after they were due. The banker
gave me a pack of cards, with a little basket containing a thousand
counters. I told the company that I should consider each counter as a
Naples ducat. In less than two hours my basket was empty. I stopped
playing and proceeded to enjoy my supper. It was arranged in the
Neapolitan style, and consisted of an enormous dish of macaroni and ten
or twelve different kinds of shellfish which are plentiful on the
Neapolitan coasts. When we left I took care not to give the duke time to