By the time we got through these matters, Ferrari was in the best of humors.

He offered me some excellent wine and partook of it himself; he talked incessantly, and diverted me extremely, though my inward amusement was not caused by the witty brilliancy of his conversation.

No, I was only excited to a sense of savage humor by the novelty of the position in which we two men stood.

Therefore I listened to him attentively, applauded his anecdotes--all of which I had heard before--admired his jokes, and fooled his egotistical soul till he had no shred of self-respect remaining.

He laid his nature bare before me--and I knew what it was at last--a mixture of selfishness, avarice, sensuality, and heartlessness, tempered now and then by a flash of good-nature and sympathetic attraction which were the mere outcomes of youth and physical health--no more.