What
fairy is it that takes such care to pay me these agreeable
civilities?"
Leander was overjoyed to hear and see her so much interested about his
picture, and calling to mind that there was in a grotto which she
often frequented a certain pedestal, on which a Diana, not yet
finished, was to be erected, on this pedestal he resolved to place
himself, crowned with laurel, and holding a lyre in his hand, on which
he played like another Apollo. He most anxiously waited the princess's
retiring to the grotto, which she did every day since her thoughts had
been taken up with this unknown person; for what Abricotina had said,
joined to the sight of the picture, had almost destroyed her repose:
her lively humour changed into a pensive melancholy, and she grew a
great lover of solitude. When she entered the grotto, she made a sign
that nobody should follow her, so that her young damsels dispersed
themselves into the neighbouring walks. The princess threw herself
upon a bank of green turf, sighed, wept, and even talked, but so
softly that Leander could not hear what she said. He had put his red
cap on, that she might not see him at first; but having taken it off,
she beheld him standing on the pedestal. At first she took him for a
real statue, for he observed exactly the attitude in which he had
placed himself, without moving so much as a finger.
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