April 1719
MantuaThe Trapensi business was proceeding as planned, with increases in imports and exports, and the revenues were increasing apace. I would claim credit for the success, at least in public, but recoiled from raising it in the presence of Dario, who might think that each accomplishment chronicled in the Trapensi ledger was his.
My father stayed engaged, too, as if to deprive me of the titular head of the business. In recent months he had taken to his bed and remained there for most hours of the day, taking his meals while propped up on pillows and scouring Dario's registers for any items of interest. His meals were brought to him in the apartment above the office which he occupied now nearly full time, and his irascibility increased as the months went by, so much so that I on
