She added that at
Bellocchio all formalities were dispensed with, and begged him to
observe that, in the rooms opening into the saloon, recreations were
provided for every taste. In one of these apartments silver trays were
set out with sherbets, cakes, and fruit cooled in snow, while in another
stood gaming-tables around which the greater number of the company were
already gathering for tresette. A third room was devoted to music; and
hither Mirandolina, who was evidently allowed a familiarity of
intercourse not accorded to the other comedians, had withdrawn with the
pacified Marquess, and perched on the arm of a high gilt chair was
pinching the strings of a guitar and humming the first notes of a
boatman's song...
After completing the circuit of the rooms Odo stepped out on the
terrace, which was now bathed in the whiteness of a soaring moon. The
colonnades detached against silver-misted foliage, the gardens
spectrally outspread, seemed to enclose him in a magic circle of
loveliness which the first ray of daylight must dispel. He wandered on,
drawn to the depths of shade on the lower terraces. The hush grew
deeper, the murmur of the river more mysterious. A yew-arbour invited
him and he seated himself on the bench niched in its inmost dusk. Seen
through the black arch of the arbour the moonlight lay like snow on
parterres and statues. He thought of Maria Clementina, and of the
delight she would have felt in such a scene as he had just left.
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