Benoni had made an impression on me that nothing could efface.

His tall thin figure and bright eyes got into my dreams and haunted me, so that I thought my nerves were affected.

For several days I could think of nothing else, and at last had myself bled, and took some cooling barley-water, and gave up eating salad at night, but without any perceptible effect.
Nino wrote often, and seemed very much excited about the disappearance of the contessina, but what could I do?
I asked everyone I knew, and nobody had heard of them, so that at last I quite gave it over, and wrote to tell him so.

A week passed, then a fortnight, and I had heard nothing from Benoni.

Nino wrote again, enclosing a letter addressed to the Contessina di Lira, which he implored me to convey to her, if I loved him.