"My dear friend," I replied, "all that you say is most sensible; but your argument is weak in that it is not based upon a single fact. For my honor's sake, you might, I think, have assumed that old age and ugliness are not indispensable qualities in any patrician who falls in love with me. There have been some who were young and lovely who have had eyes in their heads, and since you compel me to say absurd things in absurd language, in order to close your mouth, let me tell you that the object of my _flame_ is fifteen years old, and that she is as beautiful as the goddess _Cypris_ whose exploits you learn by heart in _bouts-rimés_." "Lelio!" cried Checchina, laughing heartily, "you are the most insufferable coxcomb that I ever met." "If I am a coxcomb, fair princess," I cried, "you are somewhat to blame for it, so people say." "Very well," said she, "if you are telling the truth, if your mistress, by reason of her beauty, deserves the follies you are about to commit for her, beware of one thing, and that is that you do not find yourself in the depths of despair within a week." "What in the deuce is the matter to-day, Signora Checchina, that you say such disagreeable things to me?" "Let us not joke any more," she said, putting her hand on mine with a friendly gesture. "I know you better than you know yourself. You are seriously in love, and you are going to suffer--" "Nonsense, nonsense! in your old age, Checca, you can retire to Malamocco and tell fortunes for the boatmen on the lagoons; meanwhile, my fair sorceress, allow me to go to meet my fortune without cowardly presentiments." "No! no! I will not be quiet until I have drawn your horoscope. If it were a question of a woman who is suited to you, I should not think of vexing you; but a woman of noble birth, a society woman, a marchioness or a woman of the middle class, I don't care which it may be--I hate them all! When I see that idiot Nasi throw me aside for a creature who doesn't come up to my knees, I will stake my head, why, I say to myself that all men are vain and foolish. And so I predict that you will not be loved, because a society woman cannot love an actor; and if by any chance you are loved, you will be all the more miserable; for you will be humiliated." "Humiliated! What do you mean by that, Checchina?" "By what do you recognize love, Lelio? by the pleasure you give or the pleasure you receive?" "By both, of course! What are you driving at?" "Is it not the same with devotion as with pleasure? Must it not be mutual?" "To be sure; what then?" "How much devotion do you expect to find in your mistress? a few nights of pleasure? You seem at a loss to reply." "I am, in truth; I told you that she is fifteen years old, and I am an honorable man." "Do you hope to marry her?" "I, marry a rich girl of a noble family? God forbid! In heaven's name, do you think that I am consumed with matrimoniomania, as you are?"