be a handsome, dashing, and witty man who is very attractive to the lady guests at the Amundeville country house, including the flirtatious Duchess of Fitz-Fulke, who has set her eye upon him. Jealous of the experienced duchess, who has had many love affairs, the hostess, Lady Adeline, resolves to protect the "inexperienced" Don Juan from the sexual enticements and depredations of the Duchess of Fitz-Fulke. Although Lady Adeline and Don Juan both are twenty-one years old, and, despite having a vacant heart and a cold, but proper marriage to Lord Henry, she is not in love with Don Juan. Later, the narrator Byron tells the reader whether or not Lady Adeline and Don Juan entered into a love affair; about which canto XIV contains the line: Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction". Canto XV The company of women. Lady Adeline is at risk of losing her honour, because of her apparent relation with Don Juan, whose passive, seductive manner is deceptive, because he never seems anxious to consummate the seduction; and, being personally modest, Don Juan neither brooks nor claims superiority. To thwart the social disgrace suggested by the appearance of sexual impropriety, Lady Adeline advises marriage to Don Juan, with which suggestion he agrees, but acknowledges that he usually is attracted to married women. In effort to deduce a suitable match for him, Lady Adeline deliberately omits mention of Aurora Raby, who is a Catholic, sixteen-year-old girl most suitable to pair and marry with Don Juan. Although attracted to Aurora, because she is purer of heart than the other women Lady Adeline mentioned, the adolescent girl reminds Don Juan of Haidée, the daughter of the pirate Lambro, who sold Juan into slavery at Constantinople The narrator then describes the elaborate dinner at which Don Juan is seated between Aurora and Lady Adeline. Initially laconic, Aurora soon warms to the spirit of the occasion, and contributes conversation during dinner. Canto XVI Seduced by a ghost. Smitten by her beauty, Don Juan thinks of Aurora when retiring to his rooms; that night, he walks the hall outside his rooms, viewing the paintings that decorate the walls. Hearing footfalls in the hallway, he sees a friar in cowl and beads, and asks if it be ghost or dream; despite the figure's pacing, the hood hides the face from Don Juan. In the morn, Don Juan's pale