And even without any of such vantage-ground of position, Ludovico di Castelmare was a man, whose path it would have been dangerous to cross in such a matter as this, and who was very well capable of affording to any woman, in whom he was interested, a very efficient protection against any such offence as the most enterprising of the jeunesse doree of Ravenna might have been disposed to offer her.
The Conte Leandro Lombardoni had made the utmost of the chance that had rendered him the earliest acquaintance of the beautiful Venetian in Ravenna, with the exception of Ludovico himself.

He had chattered, and boasted after the manner of his kind.

He had succeeded in finding out the lodging, which Ludovico had taken so much pains to conceal from him, and had endeavoured to establish himself on the footing of a visiting acquaintance in the Strada Sta.Eufemia.But it had come to pass, that a degree of intimacy had very quickly grown up between Paolina and Ludovico, which permitted her to let him understand that, he would render her an acceptable service by once again ridding her of the Conte Leandro, as he had done on that first day of their acquaintance.

And the result was that, one evening, the gallant Conte, on knocking at the door of the house in the Strada di S.Eufemia, had it opened to him by his friend Ludovico,--and further, that he never came back there any more, or was heard again to make any allusion whatever to his Venetian acquaintances.
But what was no longer said jestingly before Ludovico's face was none the less said enviously, sneeringly, or knowingly behind his back.

It was perfectly well understood by all the young men in Ravenna that he was desperately in love with the beautiful Venetian artist.