" With that he ruffled upstairs with the airs of a grand duke,
and left me once more stranded with the cooks. To come to an end of this
humiliating page, rejecting all offers of company, I was accommodated
with a wretched cupboard below the stairs, which smelt vilely of sour
wine and mildewed cheese, and ruefully prepared to spend what sort of
night I could, with my thoughts for bedfellows.
I know not what hour of the night it was when I was roused out of a
dream-tortured sleep by the creaking of my cupboard door. Looking up,
the light of a candle which she held showed me Virginia.
"Behold Virginia," she said. "Did you doubt whether I should come?"
"I never doubted but you would come if you could," I replied, "but I did
not see how it was possible." She blew out the candle and crept to my
side. "The cavaliere, by diverting his friends with your plight," she
said, "revealed to me where he had left you. I excused myself to the
company and retired. I think he will be disagreeably surprised before
morning."
I was much touched by her devotion and wifely duty, and assured her of
it by every means in my power.
CHAPTER XXXII
WE LIVE HAPPILY IN LUCCA
Whatever trick Virginia may have designed for the humiliation of the
cavaliere--and I never inquired of her what it was--it failed of any
apparent effect. He presented himself before us in the morning with
undisturbed serenity, and the same elaborate professions of good-will.
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