midday
Ten days went by without any event occurring to trouble the peace and solitude of the house . Montefiore employed his Italian cajolery on old Perez , on Dona Lagounia , on the apprentice , even on the cook , and they all liked him ; but , in spite of the confidence he now inspired in them , he never asked to see Juana , or to have the door of her mysterious hiding-place opened to him . The young girl , hungry to see her lover , implored him to do so ; but he always refused her from an instinct of prudence . Besides , he had used his best powers and fascinations to lull the suspicions of the old couple , and had now accustomed them to see him , a soldier , stay in bed till midday on pretence that he was ill . Thus the lovers lived only in the night-time , when the rest of the household were asleep . If Montefiore had not been one of those libertines whom the habit of gallantry enables to retain their self-possession under all circumstances , he might have been lost a dozen times during those ten days . A young lover , in the simplicity of a first love , would have committed the enchanting imprudences which are so difficult to resist .