t?'

'Fifteen thousand lire, I think.'

'Well, we might see----'

'Leonetto is going to be married directly. He got engaged this summer at
Aix-les-Bains.'

'I forgot to tell you,' said Musellaro, 'that Galeazzo Secinaro sends
you his remembrances. We travelled back from India together. If you only
knew of all Galeazzo's doughty deeds on the journey! He is at Palermo
now, but he will be in Rome in January.'

'And Gino Bomminaco begs to be remembered to you,' added Barbarisi.

'Ah, ha!' exclaimed the duke with a burst of laughter, 'you should get
Gino to tell you the story of his adventure with Donna Giulia Moceto.
You are, I fancy, in a position to give us some details on the subject
of Donna Giulia.'

Ludovico, too, began to laugh.

'Oh, I know,' broke in Musellaro, 'you have made the most tremendous
conquests in Rome. _Gratulator tibi_!'

'But tell me--do tell me about this adventure,' asked Andrea with
impatient curiosity.

These subjects excited him. Encouraged by his friends, he launched forth
into a discourse on female beauty, displaying the profound knowledge and
fervour of a connoisseur, taking a pleasure in using the most
highly-coloured expressions, with the subtle distinctions of an artist
and a libertine. Indeed, had any one taken the trouble to write down the
conversation of the four young men within these walls, hung with the
voluptuous scenes of the Bacchic tapestries, it might well have formed
the _Breviarium arcanum_ of upper-class corruption at the end of the
nineteenth century.

The shades of evening were falling, but the air was still permeated with
light as a sponge absorbs the water. Through the windows, one caught a
glimpse of the horizon and a band of orange against which the cypresses
of the Monte Mario stood out sharply like the teeth of a great ebony
rake. Ever and anon, came the cawing of the rooks, assembling in groups
on the roof of the Villa Medici before descending on the Villa Borghese
and into the narrow Valley of Sleep.

'What are you going to do this evening?' Barbarisi asked Andrea.

'I really don't know.'

'Well, then, come with us--dinner at eight, at Doney's, to inaugurate
his new restaurant at the Teatro Nazionale.'

'Yes, come with us, do come with us!' entreated Giulio Musellaro.

'Besides the three of us,' continued the duke, 'there will be Giulia
Arici, Bebe Silva and Maria Fortuna--That reminds me--capital idea!--you
bring Clara Green.'

'A capital idea