Have a care friend Guzman, you will here be ready to tell me, or you certainly are going to praise yourself again. I confess that I am on the point of so doing, and since I have told you all my bad qualities, it is but fair that I should be allowed to say what I can in my own praise. My voice then was so much admired, that the saloon resounded with applause. And this is not much to be wondered at. A man who at Rome had passed for a good singer, was not very likely to fail at Florence. In short I amused the assembly until the fête broke up, when the Duke and Duchess withdrew to their own apartments, and I rejoined my widow, who was evidently waiting only to take leave of me. I had just time to say a few sweet words to her, which were repaid with usury, and to request permission to pay my respects to her at her own house. This is usual at Florence, and was most gracefully granted. The lady even appointed an hour herself, than which she could not have paid me a greater compliment. CHAP. XXXVI. _Sequel and conclusion of this fine Intrigue._ When I returned home, I thought myself obliged to give my counsellor Sayavedra an account of my fortune that day; even to the minutest particulars. After having listened to me with the greatest attention, he said to me: “Every thing goes well, and I do not doubt but the lady will fall into our snares.” “Friend,” said I, “a prudent man is always in doubt about the event. “When I think of the excess of my good luck, when I consider all the advantages of it, and please my imagination that in the course of two days I have reached the very summit of my wishes, I fear that fortune has hitherto flattered my sanguine expectation, but to spoil and confound my rash undertaking by some sad disaster.” “True it is,” replied my confidant, “that the promises of hope are often fallacious, but yet sometimes they must be fulfilled.”