"As she is your daughter," said he, "she can and ought to take this
present from her father, if only as a dowry for her future husband."

"Will you accept it, then, my dear Leonilda?"

"Yes, papa dear," she said, embracing me, "on the condition that you will
promise to come and see me again as soon as you hear of my marriage."

I promised to do so, and I kept my word.

"As you are going to-morrow," said the duke, "I shall ask all the
nobility of Naples to meet you at supper. 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. We did not kiss each other
till the moment of parting, and I could see that both mother and daughter
were grieved to lose me.

After a careful toilette I went to supper, and found an assembly of a
hundred of the very best people in Naples. The duchess was very
agreeable, and when I kissed her hand to take leave, she said,

"I hope, Don Giacomo, that you have had no unpleasantness during your
short stay at Naples, and that you will sometimes think of your visit
with pleasure."