gh she was afraid of being overheard: "I
am at my wits' end; my husband goes on spitting blood. Yet I must sleep
with him; I am living in hourly dread for myself and my poor children."
I did my best to calm her by describing the plan on which Sacchi and her
mother had agreed with me. But days flew by, and her mother, why I know
not, never made the necessary communication. Meanwhile the man grew
worse, and the poor young wife had at last to take this disagreeable
duty on herself. She discharged it with a judgment and a feeling which
raised her in my esteem. Her husband took the announcement in a
Christian spirit, and set off for Bologna, committing his wife and
family to me with streaming eyes. I may incidentally remark that the
Milanese physician had mistaken his case. Rest among his relatives
restored him to a better state of health, and after some months he was
able to return to Venice and resume work at the theatre. But the
separation between him and his wife continued from this time forward.

The absence of her husband altered my relations to Signora Ricci, and
made her position very delicate. I told her frankly that it would be
more prudent if I discontinued my daily visits to her house. We should
have plenty of opportunities for meeting in the green-room of the
theatre. To this she replied: "So, then! In the midst of my enemies,
without a husband, on the eve of being made a widow, with two children,
I am to be left alone, abandoned by my friends!" Pale, thin, and out of
health, she spoke these words with such an accent of intense sorrow that
my resolution was shaken. I promised to alter nothing in my conduct with
regard to her, only stipulating that she, on her side, should be careful
not to compromise us both by any imprudence of behaviour. How
ill-judged this yielding to compassion and inclination was, will appear
too plainly in the sequel.

She was fairly well off, enjoying a salary of 530 ducats, while her
husband lived at Bologna at the charges of the company. In fact, her
position, compared with that of other leading actresses, was decidedly
good; yet she continued to complain and haggle for an increase of wages.
I did all in my power to interest the other members of the troupe in her
behalf, and brought Sacchi to her house. In this way an intimacy sprang
up between her and the director of the company which led in a short
while to his augmenting her appointments by more than a hundred ducats.
He told his pa