Amongst the few who dared to smile was Messer Castruccio da Fenestrella, radiant in a suit of cloth of gold, who stood watching the mischief he had made. For it was he who had first secretly challenged Gian Giacomo to a drinking-bout during supper, and afterwards urged him to dance with the pretty wife of stiff-necked Ronsecco. Awhile he stood looking on. Then, wearying of the entertainment, he sauntered off to join a group apart of which the Lady Valeria was the centre. Her ladies, Dionara and Isotta, were with her, the pedant Corsario, looking even less pedantic than his habit, and a half-dozen gallants who among them made all the chatter. Her highness was pale, and there was a frown between her eyes that so wistfully followed her unseemly brother, inattentive of those about her, some of whom from the kindliest motives sought to distract her attention. Her cheeks warmed a little at the approach of Castruccio, who moved into the group with easy, insolent grace. 'My lord is gay to-night,' he informed them lightly. None answered him. He looked at them with his flickering, shifty eyes, a sneering smile on his lips. 'So are not you,' he informed them. 'You need enlivening.' He thrust forward to the Princess, and bowed. 'Will your highness dance?' She did not look at him. Her eyes were fixed, and their glance went beyond him and was of such intensity that Messer Castruccio turned to seek the object of that curious contemplation. Down the hall came striding Messer Aliprandi, the Orator of Milan, and with him a tall, black-haired young man, in a suit of red that was more conspicuous than suitable of fashion to the place or the occasion. Into the group about the Princess they came, whilst the exquisite Castruccio eyed this unfashionable young man with frank contempt, bearing his pomander-ball to his nostrils, as if to protect his olfactory organs from possible offence. Messer Aliprandi, trimly bearded, elegant in his furred gown, and suavely mannered, bowed low before the Lady Valeria. 'Permit me, highness, to present Messer Bellarion Cane, the son of my good friend Facino Cane of Biandrate.' It was the Marquis Theodore, who had requested the Orator of Milan--as was proper, seeing that by reason of his paternity Bellarion was to be regarded as Milanese--to present his assumed compatriot to her highness. Bellarion, modelling himself upon Aliprandi, executed his bow with grace. As Fra Serafino truthfully says of him: 'He learnt manners and customs and all things so quickly that he might aptly be termed a fluid in the jug of any circumstance.' The Lady Valeria inclined her head with no more trace of recognition in her face than there was in Bellarion's own. 'You are welcome, sir,' she said with formal graciousness, and then turned to Aliprandi. 'I did not know that the Count of Biandrate had a son.'