Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/362

 husband's outstanding negotiations with various houses of business in Flanders, Italy, France, Spain, and even in Syria, her intention being to buy property for her son, whose name was Galeazzo.

He grew up to be a gallant youth, courteous and full of spirit, with a taste not only for letters, but for music, riding, wrestling, tilting, and the like. This greatly delighted his mother, and she provided him most liberally with clothes, money, and horses, letting him want for nothing that should please him. In a few years she had paid off all her husband's debts, and had recovered such moneys as were due to him from other merchants, with the exception of one account against a Venetian gentleman who traded in Syria, and, at the time when Galeazzo was about sixteen or seventeen years old, had returned to Venice. Being wishful, as lads are, to see new countries, and particularly the famous and honoured city of Venice, he begged his mother to let him go thither. She, so far from being displeased at his wish, encouraged him to go, desiring him to settle the account still open with the Venetian gentleman aforesaid. So she sent him with her