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+Project Gutenberg Etext Depart Switzerland, by Jacques Casanova
+#16 in our series by Jacques Casanova
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+Title: Depart Switzerland
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova
+
+Release Date: December, 2001  [Etext #2966]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext Depart Switzerland, by Jacques Casanova
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+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH, Volume 4a--DEPART SWITZERLAND
+
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR
+MACHEN TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED
+BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+
+
+DEPART SWITZERLAND
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The Door--Keeper's Daughters--The Horoscopes--Mdlle. Roman
+
+The idea of the sorry plight in which I had left the Marquis de
+Prie, his mistress, and perhaps all the company, who had
+undoubtedly coveted the contents of my cash-box, amused me till I
+reached Chamberi, where I only stopped to change horses.  When I
+reached Grenoble, where I intended to stay a week, I did not find
+my lodging to my liking, and went in my carriage to the
+post-office, where I found several letters, amongst others, one
+from Madame d'Urfe, enclosing a letter of introduction to an
+officer named Valenglard, who, she told me, was a learned man, and
+would present me at all the best houses in the town.
+
+I called on this officer and received a cordial welcome.  After
+reading Madame d'Urfe's letter he said he was ready to be useful
+to me in anything I pleased.
+
+He was an amiable, middle aged man, and fifteen years before had
+been Madame d'Urfe's friend, and in a much more intimate degree
+the friend of her daughter, the Princess de Toudeville.  I told
+him that I was uncomfortable at the inn, and that the first
+service I would ask of him would be to procure me a comfortable
+lodging.  He rubbed his head, and said,--
+
+"I think I can get you rooms in a beautiful house, but it is
+outside the town walls.  The door-keeper is an excellent cook, and
+for the sake of doing your cooking I am sure he will lodge you for
+nothing."
+
+"I don't wish that," said I.
+
+"Don't be afraid," said the baron, "he will make it up by means of
+his dishes; and besides, the house is for sale and costs him
+nothing.  Come and see it."
+
+I took a suite of three rooms and ordered supper for two, warning
+the man that I was dainty, liked good things, and did not care for
+the cost.  I also begged M.  de Valenglard to sup with me.  The
+doorkeeper said that if I was not pleased with his cooking I had
+only to say so, and in that case I should have nothing to pay.  I
+sent for my carriage, and felt that I had established myself in my
+new abode.  On the ground floor I saw three charming girls and the
+door-keeper's wife, who all bowed profoundly.  M. de Valenglard
+took me to a concert with the idea of introducing me to everybody,
+but I begged him not to do so, as I wished to see the ladies
+before deciding which of them I should like to know.
+
+The company was a numerous one, especially where women were
+concerned, but the only one to attract my attention was a pretty
+and modest-looking brunette, whose fine figure was dressed with
+great simplicity.  Her charming eyes, after having thrown one
+glance in my direction, obstinately refused to look at me again.
+My vanity made me conclude at once that she behaved thus only to
+increase my desire of knowing her, and to give me plenty of time
+to examine her side-face and her figure, the proportions of which
+were not concealed by her simple attire.  Success begets
+assurance, and the wish is father to the thought.  I cast a hungry
+gaze on this young lady without more ado, just as if all the women
+in Europe were only a seraglio kept for my pleasures.  I told the
+baron I should like to know her.
+
+"She is a good girl," said he, "who sees no company, and is quite
+poor."
+
+"Those are three reasons which make me the more anxious to know
+her."
+
+"You will really find nothing to do in that quarter."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"There is her aunt, I will introduce you to her as we leave the
+concert-room."
+
+After doing me this service, he came to sup with me.  The
+door-keeper and cook struck me as being very like Lebel.  He made
+his two pretty daughters wait on me, and I saw that Valenglard was
+delighted at having lodged me to my satisfaction, but he grumbled
+when he saw fifteen dishes.
+
+"He is making a fool of you and me," he said.
+
+"On the contrary, he has guessed my tastes.  Don't you think
+everything was very good?"
+
+"I don't deny it, but .  .  .  "
+
+"Don't be afraid; I love spending my money."
+
+"I beg your pardon, I only want you to be pleased."
+
+We had exquisite wines, and at dessert some ratafia superior to
+the Turkish 'visnat' I had tasted seventeen years before at Yussuf
+Ali's.  When my landlord came up at the end of supper, I told him
+that he ought to be Louis XV.'s head cook.
+
+"Go on as you have begun, and do better if you can; but let me
+have your bill every morning."
+
+"You are quite right; with such an arrangement one can tell how
+one is getting on."
+
+"I should like you always to give me ices, and you must let me
+have two more lights.  But, unless I am mistaken, those are
+candles that I see.  I am a Venetian, and accustomed to wax
+lights."
+
+"That is your servant's fault, sir."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"Because, after eating a good supper, he went to bed, saying he
+was ill.  Thus I heard nothing as to how you liked things done."
+
+"Very good, you shall learn from my own lips."
+
+"He asked my wife to make chocolate for you tomorrow morning; he
+gave her the chocolate, I will make it myself."
+
+When he had left the room M. de Valenglard said, in a manner that
+was at the same time pleased and surprised, that Madame d'Urfe had
+been apparently joking in telling him to spare me all expense.
+
+"It's her goodness of heart.  I am obliged to her all the same.
+She is an excellent woman."
+
+We stayed at table till eleven o'clock, discussing in numerable
+pleasant topics, and animating our talk with that choice liqueur
+made at Grenoble, of which we drank a bottle.  It is composed of
+the juice of cherries, brandy, sugar, and cinnamon, and cannot be
+surpassed, I am sure, by the nectar of Olympus.
+
+I sent home the baron in my carriage, after thanking him for his
+services, and begging him to be my companion early and late while
+I stayed at Grenoble--a re quest which he granted excepting for
+those days on which he was on duty.  At supper I had given him my
+bill of exchange on Zappata, which I endorsed with the name de
+Seingalt, which Madame d'Urfe had given me.  He  discounted it for
+me next day.  A banker brought me four hundred louis and I had
+thirteen hundred in my cash-box.  I always had a dread of
+penuriousness, and I delighted myself at the thought that M. de
+Valenglard would write and tell Madame d'Urfe, who was always
+preaching economy to me, what he had seen.  I escorted my guest to
+the carriage, and I was agreeably surprised when I got back to
+find the doorkeeper's two charming daughters.
+
+Le Duc had not waited for me to tell him to find some pretext for
+not serving me.  He knew my tastes, and that when there were
+pretty girls in a house, the less I saw of him the better I was
+pleased.
+
+The frank eagerness of the two girls to wait on me, their utter
+freedom from suspicion or coquetry, made me determine that I would
+shew myself deserving of their trust.  They took off my shoes and
+stockings, did my hair and put on my night-gown with perfect
+propriety on both sides.  When I was in bed I wished them a
+goodnight, and told them to shut the door and bring me my
+chocolate at eight o'clock next morning.
+
+I could not help confessing that I was perfectly happy as I
+reflected over my present condition.  I enjoyed perfect health, I
+was in the prime of life, I had no calls on me, I was thoroughly
+independent, I had a rich store of experience, plenty of money,
+plenty of luck, and I was a favourite with women.  The pains and
+troubles I had gone through had been followed by so many days of
+happiness that I felt disposed to bless my destiny.  Full of these
+agreeable thoughts I fell asleep, and all the night my dreams were
+of happiness and of the pretty brunette who had played with me at
+the concert.
+
+I woke with thoughts of her, and feeling sure that we should
+become acquainted I felt curious to know what success I should
+have with her.  She was discreet and poor; and as I was discreet
+in my own way she ought not to despise my friendship.
+
+At eight o'clock, one of the door-keeper's daughters brought me my
+chocolate, and told me that Le Duc had got the fever.
+
+"You must take care of the poor fellow."
+
+"My cousin has just taken him some broth."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"My name is Rose, and my sister is Manon."
+
+Just then Manon came in with my shirt, on which she had put fresh
+lace.  I thanked her, and she said with a blush that she did her
+father's hair very well.
+
+"I am delighted to hear it, and I shall be very pleased if you
+will be kind enough to do the same offices for me till my servant
+recovers."
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+"And I," said Rose, laughing, "will shave you."
+
+"I should like to see how you do it; get the water."
+
+I rose hastily, while Manon was preparing to do my hair.  Rose
+returned and shaved me admirably.  As soon as she had washed off
+the lather, I said,
+
+"You must give me a kiss," presenting my cheek to her.  She
+pretended not to understand.
+
+"I shall be vexed," said I, gravely but pleasantly, "if you refuse
+to kiss me,"
+
+She begged to be excused, saying with a little smile, that it was
+not customary to do so at Grenoble.
+
+"Well, if you won't kiss me, you shan't shave me."
+
+The father came in at that point, bringing his bill.
+
+"Your daughter has just shaved me admirably," said I, "and she
+refuses to kiss me, because it is not the custom at Grenoble."
+
+"You little silly," said he, "it is the custom in Paris.  You kiss
+me fast enough after you have shaved me, why should you be less
+polite to this gentleman?"
+
+She then kissed me with an air of submission to the paternal
+decree which made Manon laugh.
+
+"Ah!" said the father, "your turn will come when you have finished
+doing the gentleman's hair."
+
+He was a cunning fellow, who knew the best way to prevent me
+cheapening him, but there was no need, as I thought his charges
+reasonable, and as I paid him in full he went off in great glee.
+
+Manon did my hair as well as my dear Dubois, and kissed me when
+she had done without making as many difficulties as Rose.  I
+thought I should get on well with both of them.  They went
+downstairs when the banker was announced.
+
+He was quite a young man, and after he had counted me out four
+hundred Louis, he observed that I must be very comfortable.
+
+"Certainly," said I, "the two sisters are delightful."
+
+"Their cousin is better.  They are too discreet."
+
+"I suppose they are well off."
+
+"The father has two thousand francs a year.  They will be able to
+marry well-to-do tradesmen."
+
+I was curious to see the cousin who was said to be prettier than
+the sisters, and as soon as the banker had gone I went downstairs
+to satisfy my curiosity.  I met the father and asked him which was
+Le Duc's room, and thereon I went to see my fine fellow.  I found
+him sitting up in a comfortable bed with a rubicund face which did
+not look as if he were dangerously ill.
+
+"What is the matter with you?
+
+"Nothing, sir.  I am having a fine time of it.  Yesterday I
+thought I would be ill."
+
+"What made you think that?"
+
+"The sight of the three Graces here, who are made of better stuff
+than your handsome housekeeper, who would not let me kiss her.
+They are making me wait too long for my broth, however.  I shall
+have to speak severely about it."
+
+"Le Duc, you are a rascal."
+
+"Do you want me to get well?"
+
+"I want you to put a stop to this farce, as I don't like it."
+Just then the door opened, and the cousin came in with the broth.
+I thought her ravishing, and I noticed that in waiting on Le Duc
+she had an imperious little air which well became her.
+
+"I shall dine in bed," said my Spaniard.
+
+"You shall be attended to," said the pretty girl, and she went
+out.
+
+"She puts on big airs," said Le Duc, "but that does not impose on
+me.  Don't you think she is very pretty?"
+
+"I think you are very impudent.  You ape your betters, and I don't
+approve of it.  Get up.  You must wait on me at table, and
+afterwards you will eat your dinner by yourself, and try to get
+yourself respected as an honest man always is, whatever his
+condition, so long as he does not forget himself.  You must not
+stay any longer in this room, the doorkeeper will give you
+another."
+
+I went out, and on meeting the fair cousin I told her that I was
+jealous of the honour which she had done my man, and that I begged
+her to wait on him no longer.
+
+"Oh, I am very glad!"
+
+The door-keeper came up, and I gave him my orders, and went back
+to my room to write.
+
+Before dinner the baron came and told me that he had just come
+from the lady to whom he had introduced me.  She was the wife of a
+barrister named Morin, and aunt to the young lady who had so
+interested me.
+
+"I have been talking of you," said the baron, "and of the
+impression her niece made on you.  She promised to send for her,
+and to keep her at the house all day."
+
+After a dinner as good as the supper of the night before, though
+different from it in its details, and appetising enough to awaken
+the dead, we went to see Madame Morin, who received us with the
+easy grace of a Parisian lady.  She introduced me to seven
+children, of whom she was the mother.  Her eldest daughter, an
+ordinary-looking girl, was twelve years old, but I should have
+taken her to be fourteen, and said so.  To convince me of her age
+the mother brought a book in which the year, the month, the day,
+the hour, and even the minute of her birth were entered.  I was
+astonished at such minute accuracy, and asked if she had had a
+horoscope drawn.
+
+"No," said she, "I have never found anybody to do it."
+
+"It is never too late," I replied, "and without doubt God has
+willed that this pleasure should be reserved for me."
+
+At this moment M. Morin came in, his wife introduced me, and after
+the customary compliments had passed, she returned to the subject
+of the horoscope.  The barrister sensibly observed that if
+judicial astrology was not wholly false, it was, nevertheless, a
+suspected science; that he had been so foolish as once to devote a
+considerable portion of his time to it, but that on recognizing
+the inability of man to deal with the future he had abandoned
+astrology, contenting himself with the veritable truths of
+astronomy.  I saw with pleasure that I had to deal with a man of
+sense and education, but Valenglard, who was a believer in
+astrology, began an argument with him on the subject.  During
+their discussion I quietly copied out on my tablets the date of
+Mdlle. Morin's birth.  But M. Morin saw what I was about, and
+shook his head at me, with a smile.  I understood what he meant,
+but I did not allow that to disconcert me, as I had made up my
+mind fully five minutes ago that I would play the astrologer on
+this occasion.
+
+At last the fair niece arrived.  Her aunt introduced me to her as
+Mdlle. Roman Coupier, her sister's daughter; and then, turning to
+her, she informed her how ardently I had been longing to know her
+since I had seen her at the concert.
+
+She was then seventeen.  Her satin skin by its dazzling whiteness
+displayed to greater advantage her magnificent black hair.  Her
+features were perfectly regular, and her complexion had a slight
+tinge of red; her fine eyes were at once sweet and sparkling, her
+eyebrows were well arched, her mouth small, her teeth regular and
+as white as pearls, and her lips, of an exquisite rosy hue,
+afforded a seat to the deities of grace and modesty.
+
+After some moments' conversation, M. Morin was obliged to go out
+on business, and a game of quadrille was proposed, at which I was
+greatly pitied for having lost a louis.  I thought Mdlle. Roman
+discreet, judicious, pleasant without being brilliant, and, still
+better, without any pretensions.  She was high-spirited,
+even-tempered, and had a natural art which did not allow her to
+seem to understand too flattering a compliment, or a joke which
+passed in any way the bounds of propriety.  She was neatly
+dressed, but had no ornaments, and nothing which shewed wealth;
+neither ear-rings, rings, nor a watch.  One might have said that
+her beauty was her only adornment, the only ornament she wore
+being a small gold cross hanging from her necklace of black
+ribbon.  Her breast was well shaped and not too large.  Fashion
+and custom made her shew half of it as innocently as she shewed
+her plump white hand, or her cheeks, whereon the lily and the rose
+were wedded.  I looked at her features to see if I might hope at
+all; but I was completely puzzled, and could come to no
+conclusion.  She gave no sign which made me hope, but on the other
+hand she did nothing to make me despair.  She was so natural and
+so reserved that my sagacity was completely at fault.
+Nevertheless, a liberty which I took at supper gave me a gleam of
+hope.  Her napkin fell down, and in returning it to her I pressed
+her thigh amorously, and could not detect the slightest
+displeasure on her features.  Content with so much I begged
+everybody to come to dinner with me next day, telling Madame Morin
+that I should not be going out, and that I was therefore delighted
+to put my carriage at her service.
+
+When I had taken Valenglard home, I went to my lodging building
+castles in Spain as to the conquest of Mdlle. Roman.
+
+I warned my landlord that we should be six at dinner and supper
+the following day, and then I went to bed.  As Le Duc was
+undressing me he said,
+
+"Sir, you are punishing me, but what makes me sorry you are
+punishing yourself in depriving yourself of the services of those
+pretty girls."
+
+"You are a rogue."
+
+"I know it, but I serve you with all my heart, and I love your
+pleasure as well as my own."
+
+"You plead well for yourself; I am afraid I have spoilt you."
+
+"Shall I do your hair to-morrow?"
+
+"No; you may go out every day till dinner-time."
+
+"I shall be certain to catch it."
+
+"Then I shall send you to the hospital."
+
+"That is a fine prospect, 'por Dios'."
+
+He was impudent, sly, profligate, and a rascally fellow; but also
+obedient, devoted, discreet, and faithful, and his good qualities
+made me overlook his defects.
+
+Next morning, when Rose brought my chocolate, she told me with a
+laugh that my man had sent for a carriage, and after dressing
+himself in the height of fashion he had gone off with his sword at
+his side, to pay calls, as he said.
+
+"We laughed at him."
+
+"You were quite right, my dear Rose."
+
+As I spoke, Manon came in under some pretext or other.  I saw that
+the two sisters had an understanding never to be alone with me; I
+was displeased, but pretended not to notice anything.  I got up,
+and I had scarcely put on my dressing-gown when the cousin came in
+with a packet under her arm.
+
+"I am delighted to see you, and above all to look at your smiling
+face, for I thought you much too serious yesterday."
+
+"That's because M. le Duc is a greater gentleman than you are; I
+should not have presumed to laugh in his presence; but I had my
+reward in seeing him start off this morning in his gilded coach."
+
+"Did he see you laughing at him?"
+
+"Yes, unless he is blind."
+
+"He will be vexed."
+
+"All the better."
+
+"You are really very charming.  What have you got in that parcel?"
+
+"Some goods of our own manufacture.  Look; they are embroidered
+gloves."
+
+"They are beautiful; the embroidery is exquisitely done.  How much
+for the lot?"
+
+"Are you a good hand at a bargain."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then we must take that into account."
+
+After some whisperings together the cousin took a pen, put down
+the numbers of gloves, added up and said,
+
+"The lot will cost you two hundred and ten francs."
+
+"There are nine louis; give me six francs change."
+
+"But you told us you would make a bargain."
+
+"You were wrong to believe it."
+
+She blushed and gave me the six francs.  Rose and Manon shaved me
+and did my hair, giving me a kiss with the best grace imaginable;
+and when I offered my cheek to the cousin she kissed me on the
+mouth in a manner that told me she would be wholly mine on the
+first opportunity.
+
+"Shall we have the pleasure of waiting on you at the table?" said
+Rose.
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"But we should like to know who is coming to dinner first; as if
+it is officers from the garrison we dare not come; they make so
+free."
+
+"My guests are Madame Morin, her husband, and her niece."
+
+"Very good"
+
+The cousin said,
+
+"Mdlle. Roman is the prettiest and the best girl in Grenoble; but
+she will find some difficulty in marrying as she has no money."
+
+"She may meet some rich man who will think her goodness and her
+beauty worth a million of money."
+
+"There are not many men of that kind."
+
+"No; but there are a few."
+
+Manon and the cousin went out, and I was left alone with Rose, who
+stayed to dress me.  I attacked her, but she defended herself so
+resolutely that I desisted, and promised it should not occur
+again.  When she had finished I gave her a louis, thanked her, and
+sent her away.
+
+As soon as I was alone I locked the door, and proceeded to concoct
+the horoscope I had promised to Madame Morin.  I found it an easy
+task to fill eight pages with learned folly; and I confined myself
+chiefly to declaring the events which had already happened to the
+native.  I had deftly extracted some items of information in the
+course of conversation, and filling up the rest according to the
+laws of probability and dressing up the whole in astrological
+diction, I was pronounced to be a seer, and no doubts were cast on
+my skill.  I did not indeed run much risk, for everything hung
+from an if, and in the judicious employment of ifs lies the secret
+of all astrology.
+
+I carefully re-read the document, and thought it admirable.  I
+felt in the vein, and the use of the cabala had made me an expert
+in this sort of thing.
+
+Just after noon all my guests arrived, and at one we sat down to
+table.  I have never seen a more sumptuous or more delicate
+repast.  I saw that the cook was an artist more in need of
+restraint than encouragement.  Madame Morin was very polite to the
+three girls, whom she knew well, and Le Duc stood behind her chair
+all the time, looking after her wants, and dressed as richly as
+the king's chamberlain.  When we had nearly finished dinner Mdlle.
+Roman passed a compliment on my three fair waiting-maids, and this
+giving me occasion to speak of their talents I got up and brought
+the gloves I had purchased from them.  Mdlle. Roman praised the
+quality of the material and the work.  I took the opportunity, and
+begged leave of the aunt to give her and her niece a dozen pair
+apiece.  I obtained this favour, and I then gave Madame Morin the
+horoscope.  Her husband read it, and though an unbeliever he was
+forced to admire, as all the deductions were taken naturally from
+the position of the heavenly bodies at the instant of his
+daughter's birth.  We spent a couple of hours in talking about
+astrology, and the same time in playing at quadrille, and then we
+took a walk in the garden, where I was politely left to enjoy the
+society of the fair Roman.
+
+Our dialogue, or rather my monologue, turned solely on the
+profound impression she had made on me, on the passion she had
+inspired, on her beauty, her goodness, the purity of my
+intentions, and on my need of love, lest I should go down to the
+grave the most hapless of men.
+
+"Sir," said she, at last, "if my destiny points to marriage I do
+not deny that I should be happy to find a husband like you."
+
+I was emboldened by this frank declaration, and seizing her hand I
+covered it with fiery kisses, saying passionately that I hoped she
+would not let me languish long.  She turned her head to look for
+her aunt.  It was getting dark, and she seemed to be afraid of
+something happening to her.  She drew me gently with her, and on
+rejoining the other guests we returned to the dining-room, where I
+made a small bank at faro for their amusement.  Madame Morin gave
+her daughter and niece, whose pockets were empty, some money, and
+Valenglard directed their play so well that when we left off to go
+to supper I had the pleasure of seeing that each of the three
+ladies had won two or three louis.
+
+We sat at table till midnight.  A cold wind from the Alps stopped
+my plan of proposing a short turn in the garden.  Madame Morin
+overwhelmed me with thanks for my entertainment, and I gave each
+of my lady-visitors a respectful kiss.
+
+I heard singing in the kitchen, and on going in I found Le Duc in
+a high state of excitement and very drunk.  As soon as he saw me
+he tried to rise, but he lost his centre of gravity, and fell
+right under the kitchen table.  He was carried away to bed.
+
+I thought this accident favourable to my desire of amusing myself,
+and I might have succeeded if the three Graces had not all been
+there.  Love only laughs when two are present, and thus it is that
+the ancient mythology tells no story of the loves of the Graces,
+who were always together.  I had not yet found an opportunity of
+getting my three maids one after the other, and I dared not risk a
+general attack, which might have lost me the confidence of each
+one.  Rose, I saw, was openly jealous of her cousin, as she kept a
+keen look-out after her movements.  I was not sorry, for jealousy
+leads to anger, and anger goes a long way.  When I was in bed I
+sent them away with a modest good night.
+
+Next morning, Rose came in by herself to ask me for a cake of
+chocolate, for, as she said, Le Duc was now ill in real earnest.
+She brought me the box, and I gave her the chocolate, and in doing
+so I took her hand and shewed her how well I loved her.  She was
+offended, drew back her hand sharply, and left the room.  A moment
+after Manon came in under the pretext of shewing me a piece of
+lace I had torn away in my attempts of the day before, and of
+asking me if she should mend it.  I took her hand to kiss it, but
+she did not give me time, presenting her lips, burning with
+desire.  I took her hand again, and it was just on the spot when
+the cousin came in.  Manon held the piece of lace, and seemed to
+be waiting for my answer.  I told her absently that I should be
+obliged if she would mend it when she had time, and with this she
+went out.
+
+I was troubled by this succession of disasters, and thought that
+the cousin would not play me false from the earnest of her
+affection which she had given me the day before in that ardent
+kiss of hers.  I begged her to give me my handkerchief, and gently
+drew her hand towards me.  Her mouth fastened to mine, and her
+hand, which she left to my pleasure with all the gentleness of a
+lamb, was already in motion when Rose came in with my chocolate.
+We regained our composure in a moment, but I was furious at heart.
+I scowled at Rose, and I had a right to do so after the manner in
+which she had repulsed me a quarter of an hour before.  Though the
+chocolate was excellent, I pronounced it badly made.  I chid her
+for her awkwardness in waiting on me, and repulsed her at every
+step.  When I got up I would not let her shave me; I shaved
+myself, which seemed to humiliate her, and then Manon did my hair.
+Rose and the cousin then went out, as if to make common cause
+together, but it was easy to see that Rose was less angry with her
+sister than her cousin.
+
+As Manon was finishing my toilette, M. de Valenglard came in.  As
+soon as we were alone, the officer, who was a man of honour and of
+much sense, in spite of his belief in astrology and the occult
+sciences, said that he thought me looking rather melancholy, and
+that if my sadness had any connection with the fair Roman, he
+warned me to think no more of her, unless I had resolved to ask
+her hand in marriage.  I replied that to put an end to all
+difficulties I had decided on leaving Grenoble in a few days.  We
+dined together and we then called on Madame Morin, with whom we
+found her fair niece.
+
+Madame Morin gave me a flattering welcome, and Mdlle. Roman
+received me so graciously that I was emboldened to kiss her and
+place her on my knee.  The aunt laughed, the niece blushed, and
+then slipping into my hand a little piece of paper made her
+escape.  I read on the paper the year, day, Hour, and minute of
+her birth, and guessed what she meant.  She meant, I thought, that
+I could do nothing with her before I had drawn up her horoscope.
+My resolve was soon taken to profit by this circumstance, and I
+told her that I would tell her whether I could oblige her or not
+next day, if she would come to a ball I was giving.  She looked at
+her aunt and my invitation was accepted.
+
+Just then the servant announced "The Russian Gentleman."  I saw a
+well-made man of about my own age, slightly marked with the
+small-pox, and dressed as a traveller.  He accosted Madame Morin
+with easy grace, was welcomed heartily by her, spoke well,
+scarcely gave me a glance, and did not say a word to the nieces.
+In the evening M. Morin came in, and the Russian gave him a small
+phial full of a white liquid, and then made as if he would go,
+but he was kept to supper.
+
+At table the conversation ran on this marvellous liquid of his.
+M. Morin told me that he had cured a young man of a bruise from a
+billiard ball in five minutes, by only rubbing it with the liquid.
+He said modestly that it was a trifling thing of his own
+invention, and he talked a good deal about chemistry to
+Valenglard.  As my attention was taken up by the fair Mdlle.
+Roman I could not take part in their conversation; my hope of
+succeeding with her on the following day absorbed all my thoughts.
+As I was going away with Valenglard he told me that nobody knew
+who the Russian was, and that he was nevertheless received
+everywhere.
+
+"Has he a carriage and servants?"
+
+"He has nothing, no servants and no money."
+
+"Where did he come from?"
+
+"From the skies."
+
+"A fair abode, certainly; how long has he been here?"
+
+"For the last fortnight.  He visits, but asks for nothing."
+
+"How does he live?"
+
+"On credit at the inn; he is supposed to be waiting for his
+carriage and servants."
+
+"He is probably a vagabond."
+
+"He does not look like one, as you saw for yourself, and his
+diamonds contradict that hypothesis."
+
+"Yes, if they are not imitation stones, for it seems to me that if
+they were real he would sell them."
+
+When I got home Rose came by herself to attend on me, but she
+continued to sulk.  I tried to rouse her up, but as I had no
+success I ordered her to go and tell her father that I was going
+to give a ball next day in the room by the garden, and that supper
+was to be laid for twenty.
+
+When the door-keeper came to take my orders the following morning,
+I told him that I should like his girls to dance if he didn't
+mind.  At this Rose condescended to smile, and I thought it a good
+omen.  Just as she went out with her father, Manon carne in under
+the pretext of asking me what lace I would wear for the day.  I
+found her as gentle as a lamb and as loving as a dove.  The affair
+was happily consummated, but we had a narrow escape of being
+caught by Rose, who came in with Le Duc and begged me to let him
+dance, promising that he would behave himself properly.  I was
+glad that everybody should enjoy themselves and consented, telling
+him to thank Rose, who had got him this favour.
+
+I had a note from Madame Morin, asking me if she might bring with
+her to the ball two ladies of her acquaintance and their
+daughters.  I replied that I should be delighted for her to invite
+not only as many ladies but as many gentlemen as she pleased, as I
+had ordered supper for twenty people.  She came to dinner with her
+niece and Valenglard, her daughter being busy dressing and her
+husband being engaged till the evening.  She assured me that I
+should have plenty of guests.
+
+The fair Mdlle. Roman wore the same dress, but her beauty
+unadorned was dazzling.  Standing by me she asked if I had thought
+about her horoscope.  I took her hand, made her sit on my knee,
+and promised that she should have it on the morrow.  I held her
+thus, pressing her charming breasts with my left hand, and
+imprinting fiery kisses on her lips, which she only opened to beg
+me to calm myself.  She was more astonished than afraid to see me
+trembling, and though she defended herself successfully she did
+not lose countenance for a moment, and in spite of my ardent gaze
+she did not turn her face away.  I calmed myself with an effort,
+and her eyes expressed the satisfaction of one who has vanquished
+a generous enemy by the force of reason.  By my silence I praised
+the virtue of this celestial being, in whose destiny I only had a
+part by one of those caprices of chance which philosophy seeks to
+explain in vain.
+
+Madame Morin came up to me, and asked me to explain some points in
+her daughter's horoscope.  She then told me that if I wanted to
+have four beauties at my ball she had only to write a couple of
+notes.
+
+"I shall only see one beauty," said I, looking at her niece.  "God
+alone knows," said Valenglard, "what people will say in Grenoble!"
+"They will say it is your wedding ball," said Madame Morin to her
+niece.
+
+"Yes, and they will doubtless talk of my magnificent dress, my
+lace, and my diamonds," said the niece, pleasantly.
+
+"They will talk of your beauty, your wit, and your goodness,"
+I replied, passionately, "goodness which will make your husband a
+happy man."
+
+There was a silence, because they all thought I was alluding to
+myself.  I was doing nothing of the sort.  I should have been glad
+to give five hundred louis for her, but I did not see how the
+contract was to be drawn up, and I was not going to throw my money
+away.
+
+We went to my bedroom, and while Mdlle. Roman was amusing herself
+with looking at the jewellry on my toilette-table, her aunt and
+Valenglard examined the books on the table by my bedside.  I saw
+Madame Morin going to the window and looking closely at something
+she held in her hand.  I remembered I had left out the portrait of
+the fair nun.  I ran to her and begged her to give me the indecent
+picture I had so foolishly left about.
+
+"I don't mind the indecency of it," she said, "but what strikes me
+is the exact likeness."
+
+I understood everything, and I shuddered at the carelessness of
+which I had been guilty.
+
+"Madam," I said, "that is the portrait of a Venetian, lady, of
+whom I was very found."
+
+"I daresay, but it's very curious.  These two M's, these cast-off
+robes sacrificed to love, everything makes my surprise greater."
+
+"She is a nun and named M---- M----."
+
+"And a Welsh niece of mine at Camberi is also named M---- M----,
+and belongs to the same order.  Nay, more, she has been at Aix,
+whence you have come, to get cured of an illness."
+
+"And this portrait is like her?"
+
+"As one drop of water is like another."
+
+"If you go to Chamberi call on her and say you come from me; you
+will be welcome and you will be as much surprised as I am."
+
+"I will do so, after I have been in Italy.  However, I will not
+shew her this portrait, which would scandalize her; I will put it
+away carefully."
+
+"I beg you not to shew it to anyone."
+
+"You may rely on me."
+
+I was in an ecstasy at having put her off so effectually.
+
+At eight o'clock all my guests arrived, and I saw before me all
+the fairest ladies and the noblest gentlemen of Grenoble.  The
+only thing which vexed me was the compliments they lavished on me,
+as is customary in the provinces.
+
+I opened the ball with the lady pointed out to me by
+M. Valenglard, and then I danced with all the ladies in succession;
+but my partner in all the square dances was the fair Mdlle. Roman,
+who shone from her simplicity--at least, in my eyes.
+
+After a quadrille, in which I had exerted myself a good deal, I
+felt hot and went up to my room to put on a lighter suit, and as I
+was doing so, in came the fair cousin, who asked me if I required
+anything.
+
+"Yes, you, dearest," I replied, going up to her and taking her in
+my arms.  "Did anyone see you coming in here?"
+
+"No, I came from upstairs, and my cousins are in the
+dancing-room."
+
+"That is capital.  You are fair as Love himself, and this is an
+excellent opportunity for skewing you how much I love you."
+
+"Good heavens!  What are you doing?  Let me go, somebody might
+come in.  Well, put out the light!"
+
+I put it out, shut the door, and, my head full of Mdlle. Roman,
+the cousin found me as ardent as I should have been with that
+delightful person.  I confess, too, that the door-keeper's niece
+was well worthy of being loved on her own merits.  I found her
+perfect, perhaps better than Mdlle. Roman, a novice, would have
+been.  In spite of my ardour her passion was soon appeased, and
+she begged me to let her go, and I did so; but it was quite time.
+I wanted to begin over again, but she was afraid that our absence
+would be noticed by her two Argus-eyed cousins, so she kissed me
+and left the room.
+
+I went back to the ball-room, and we danced on till the king of
+door-keepers came to tell us supper was ready.
+
+A collation composed of the luxuries which the season and the
+country afforded covered the table; but what pleased the ladies
+most was the number and artistic arrangement of the wax lights.
+
+I sat down at a small table with a few of my guests, and I
+received the most pressing invitations to spend the autumn in
+their town.  I am sure that if I had accepted I should have been
+treated like a prince, for the nobility of Grenoble bear the
+highest character for hospitality.  I told them that if it had
+been possible I should have had the greatest pleasure in accepting
+their invitation, and in that case I should have been delighted to
+have made the acquaintance of the family of an illustrious
+gentleman, a friend of my father's.
+
+"What name is it?" they asked me, altogether.
+
+"Bouchenu de Valbonnais."
+
+"He was my uncle.  Ah!  sir, you must come and stay with us.  You
+danced with my daughter.  What was your father's name?
+
+This story, which I invented, and uttered as I was wont, on the
+spur of the moment, turned me into a sort of wonder in the eyes of
+the worthy people.
+
+After we had laughed, jested, drank, and eaten, we rose from the
+table and began to dance anew.
+
+Seeing Madame Morin, her niece, and Valenglard going into the
+garden, I followed them, and as we walked in the moonlight I led
+the fair Mdlle. Roman through a covered alley; but all my fine
+speeches were in vain; I could do nothing.  I held her between my
+arms, I covered her with burning kisses, but not one did she
+return to me, and her hands offered a successful resistance to my
+hardy attempts.  By a sudden effort, however, I at last attained
+the porch of the temple of love, and held her in such a way that
+further resistance would have been of no avail; but she stopped me
+short by saying in a voice which no man of feeling could have
+resisted,--
+
+"Be my friend, sir, and not my enemy and the cause of my ruin."
+
+I knelt before her, and taking her hand begged her pardon,
+swearing not to renew my attempts.  I then rose and asked her to
+kiss me as a pledge of her forgiveness.  We rejoined her aunt, and
+returned to the ball-room, but with all my endeavours I could not
+regain my calm.
+
+I sat down in a corner of the room, and I asked Rose, who passed
+by me, to get me a glass of lemonade.  When she brought it she
+gently chid me for not having danced with her, her sister, or her
+cousin.
+
+"It will give people but a poor opinion of our merits."
+
+"I am tired," said I, "but if you will promise to be kind I will
+dance a minuet with you."
+
+"What do want me to do?" said she.
+
+"Go into my bedroom and wait for me there in the dark when you see
+your sister and your cousin busy dancing."
+
+"And you will only dance with me."
+
+"I swear"
+
+"Then you will find me in your room."
+
+I found her passionate, and I had full satisfaction.  To keep my
+word with her I waited for the closing minuet, for having danced
+with Rose I felt obliged in common decency to dance with the other
+two, especially as I owed them the same debt.
+
+At day-break the ladies began to vanish, and as I put the Morins
+into my carriage I told them that I could not have the pleasure of
+seeing them again that day, but that if they would come and spend
+the whole of the day after with me I would have the horoscope
+ready.
+
+I went to the kitchen to thank the worthy door-keeper for having
+made me cut such a gallant figure, and I found the three nymphs
+there, filling their pockets with sweetmeats.  He told them,
+laughing, that as the master was there they might rob him with a
+clear conscience, and I bade them take as much as they would.  I
+informed the door-keeper that I should not dine till six, and I
+then went to bed.
+
+I awoke at noon, and feeling myself well rested I set to work at
+the horoscope, and I resolved to tell the fair Mdlle. Roman that
+fortune awaited her at Paris, where she would become her master's
+mistress, but that the monarch must see her before she had
+attained her eighteenth year, as at that time her destiny would
+take a different turn.  To give my prophecy authority, I told her
+some curious circumstances which had hitherto happened to her, and
+which I had learnt now and again from herself or Madame Morin
+without pretending to heed what they said.
+
+With an Ephemeris and another astrological book, I made out and
+copied in six hours Mdlle. Roman's horoscope, and I had so well
+arranged it that it struck Valenglard and even M. Morin with
+astonishment, and made the two ladies quite enthusiastic.
+
+My horoscope must only be known to the young lady and her family,
+who would no doubt keep the secret well.  After I had put the
+finishing touches to it, read it, and read it again, I felt
+certain that I had made a masterpiece, and I then dined in bed
+with my three nymphs.  I was polite and affectionate to them all,
+and we were all happy together, but I was the happiest.  M. de
+Valenglard came to see me early the next day, and informed me that
+nobody suspected me of being in love with Mdlle. Roman, but that I
+was thought to be amorous of my landlord's girls.
+
+"Well, let them think so," said I; "they are worthy of love,
+though not to be named in the same breath with one past compare,
+but who leaves me no hope."
+
+"Let me tell Madame d'Urfe all about it."
+
+"Certainly; I shall be delighted."
+
+M. and Madame Morin and their niece came at noon, and we spent the
+hour before dinner in reading the horoscope.  It would be
+impossible to describe the four distinct sorts of surprise which I
+saw before me.  The interesting Mdlle. Roman looked very grave,
+and, not knowing whether she had a will of her own, listened to
+what was said in silence.  M. Morin looked at me now and again,
+and seeing that I kept a serious countenance did not dare to
+laugh.  Valenglard shewed fanatic belief in astrology in every
+feature.  Madame Morin seemed struck as by a miracle, and, far
+from thinking the fact prophesied too improbable, remarked that
+her niece was much more worthy of becoming her sovereign's wife or
+mistress than the bigoted Maintenon had been.
+
+"She would never have done anything," said Madame Morin, "if she
+had not left America and come to France; and if my niece does not
+go to Paris nobody can say that the horoscope has prophesied
+falsely.  We should therefore--go to Paris, but how is it to be
+done?  I don't see my way to it.  The prediction of the birth of a
+son has something divine and entrancing about it.  I don't wish to
+seem prejudiced, but my niece has certainly more qualifications
+for gaining the king's affection than the Maintenon had: my niece
+is a good girl and young, while the Maintenon was no longer as
+young as she had been, and had led a strange life before she
+became a devotee.  But we shall never accomplish this journey to
+Paris."
+
+"Nay," said Valenglard, in a serious tone, which struck me as
+supremely ridiculous, "she must go; her fate must be fulfilled."
+
+The fair Mdlle. Roman seemed all amazed.  I let them talk on, and
+we sat down to dinner.
+
+[The next two paragraphs were misplaced in the original,
+likely by the typesetter, and have been inserted here where it
+seems that they belong.  D.W.]
+
+I hoped I should be asked to take the diamond to Paris myself, and
+I felt inclined to grant the request.  I flattered myself that
+they could not do without me, and that I should get what I wanted,
+if not for love at any rate through gratitude; indeed, who knew
+what might become of the plan?  The monarch would be sure to be
+caught directly.  I had no doubts on that subject, for where is
+the man in love who does not think that his beloved object will
+win the hearts of all others?  For the moment I felt quite jealous
+of the king, but, from my thorough knowledge of my own
+inconstancy, I felt sure that my jealousy would cease when my love
+had been rewarded, and I was aware that Louis XV. did not
+altogether hold the opinions of a Turk in such concerns.  What
+gave an almost divine character to the horoscope was the
+prediction of a son to be born, who would make the happiness of
+France, and could only come from the royal blood and from a
+singular vessel of election.
+
+A curious fancy increased my delight, namely, the thought of
+becoming a famous astrologer in an age when reason and science had
+so justly demolished astrology.  I enjoyed the thought of seeing
+myself sought out by crowned heads, which are always the more
+accessible to superstitious notions.  I determined I would be
+particular to whom I gave my advice.  Who has not made his castles
+in Spain?  If Mdlle.  Roman gave birth to a daughter instead of a
+son I should be amused, and all would not be lost, for a son might
+come afterwards.
+
+At first silence reigned, and then the conversation ran on a
+thousand trifles, as is usual in good society, but by degrees, as
+I had thought, they returned to the horoscope.
+
+"According to the horoscope," said the aunt, "the king is to fall
+in love with my niece in her eighteenth year; she is now close on
+it.  What are we to do?  Where are we to get the hundred louis
+necessary?  And when she gets to Paris is she to go to the king
+and say, 'Here I am, your majesty'?  And who is going to take her
+there?  I can't."
+
+"My aunt Roman might," said the young lady, blushing up to her
+eyes at the roar of laughter which none of us could restrain.
+
+"Well," said Madame Morin, "there is Madame Varnier, of the Rue de
+Richelieu; she is an aunt of yours.  She has a good establishment,
+and knows everybody."
+
+"See," said Valenglard, "how the ways of destiny are made plain.
+You talk of a hundred louis; twelve will be sufficient to take you
+to Madame Varnier's.  When you get there, leave the rest to your
+fate, which will surely favour you."
+
+"If you do go to Paris," said I, "say nothing to Madame Roman or
+Madame Varnier about the horoscope."
+
+"I will say nothing to anyone about it; but, after all, it is only
+a happy dream.  I shall never see Paris, still less Louis XV."
+
+I arose, and going to my cash-box I took out a roll of a hundred
+and fifty louis, which I gave to her, saying it was a packet of
+sweetmeats.  It felt rather heavy, and on opening it she found it
+to contain fifty pieces-of-eight, which she took for medals.
+
+"They are gold," said Valenglard.
+
+"And the goldsmith will give you a hundred and fifty louis for
+them," added M. Morin.
+
+"I beg you will keep them; you can give me a bill payable at Paris
+when you become rich."
+
+I knew she would refuse to accept my present, although I should
+have been delighted if she had kept the money.  But I admired her
+strength of mind in restraining her tears, and that without
+disturbing for a moment the smile on her face.
+
+We went out to take a turn in the garden.  Valenglard and Madame
+Morin began on the topic of the horoscope anew, and I left them,
+taking Mdlle. Roman with me.
+
+"I wish you would tell me," said she, when we were out of hearing
+of the others, "if this horoscope is not all a joke."
+
+"No," I answered, "it is quite serious, but it all depends on an
+if.  If you do not go to Paris the prophecy will never be
+fulfilled."
+
+"You must think so, certainly, or you would never have offered me
+those fifty medals."
+
+"Do me the pleasure of accepting them now; nobody will know
+anything about it."
+
+"No, I cannot, though I am much obliged to you.  But why should
+you want to give me such a large sum?"
+
+"For the pleasure of contributing to your happiness, and in the
+hope that you will allow me to love you."
+
+"If you really love met why should I oppose your love?  You need
+not buy my consent; and to be happy I do not want to possess the
+King of France, if you did but know to what my desires are
+limited."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"I would fain find a kind husband, rich enough for us not to lack
+the necessaries of life."
+
+"But how if you did not love him?"
+
+"If he was a good, kind man how could I help loving him?"
+
+"I see that you do not know what love is."
+
+"You are right.  I do not know the love that maddens, and I thank
+God for it."
+
+"Well, I think you are wise; may God preserve you from that love."
+
+"You say, that as soon as the king sees me he will fall in love
+with me, and to tell you the truth that strikes me as vastly
+improbable; for though it is quite possible that he may not think
+me plain, or he might even pronounce me pretty, yet I do not think
+he will become so madly in love as you say."
+
+"You don't?  Let us sit down.  You have only got to fancy that the
+king will take the same liking to you that I have done; that is
+all."
+
+"But what do you find in me that you will not find in most girls
+of my age?  I certainly may have struck you; but that only proves
+that I was born to exercise this sway over you, and not at all
+that I am to rule the king in like manner.  Why should I go and
+look for the king, if you love me yourself?"
+
+"Because I cannot give you the position you deserve."
+
+"I should have thought you had plenty of money."
+
+"Then there's another reason: you are not in love with me."
+
+"I love you as tenderly as if I were your wife.  I might then kiss
+you, though duty now forbids my doing so."
+
+"I am much obliged to you for not being angry with me for being so
+happy with you!"
+
+"On the contrary, I am delighted to please you."
+
+"Then you will allow me to call on you at an early hour to-morrow,
+and to take coffee at your bedside."
+
+"Do not dream of such a thing.  If I would I could not.  I sleep
+with my aunt, and I always rise at the same time she does.  Take
+away your hand; you promised not to do it again.  In God's name,
+let me alone."
+
+Alas! I had to stop; there was no overcoming her.  But what
+pleased me extremely was that in spite of my amorous persecution
+she did not lose that smiling calm which so became her.  As for
+myself I looked as if I deserved that pardon for which I pleaded
+on my knees, and in her eyes I read that she was sorry that she
+could not grant what I required of her.
+
+I could no longer stay beside her, my senses were too excited by
+her beauty.  I left her and went to my room where I found the kind
+Manon busying herself on my cuffs, and she gave me the relief I
+wanted, and when we were both satisfied made her escape.  I
+reflected that I should never obtain more than I had obtained
+hitherto from young Mdlle. Roman--at least, unless I gave the lie
+to my horoscope by marrying her, and I decided that I would not
+take any further steps in the matter.  I returned to the garden,
+and going up to the aunt I begged her to walk with me.  In vain I
+urged the worthy woman to accept a hundred louis for her niece's
+journey from me.  I swore to her by all I held sacred that no one
+else should ever know of the circumstance.  All my eloquence and
+all my prayers were in vain.  She told me that if her niece's
+destiny only depended on that journey all would be well, for she
+had thought over a plan which would, with her husband's consent,
+enable Mdlle.  Roman to go to Paris.  At the same time she gave me
+her sincerest thanks, and said that her niece was very fortunate
+to have pleased me so well.
+
+"She pleased me so well," I replied, "that I have resolved to go
+away to-morrow to avoid making proposals to you which would bring
+the great fortune that awaits her to nought.  If it were not for
+that I should have been happy to have asked her hand of you."
+
+"Alas! her happiness would, perhaps, be built on a better
+foundation.  Explain yourself."
+
+"I dare not wage war with fate."
+
+"But you are not going to-morrow?"
+
+"Excuse me, but I shall call to take leave at two o'clock."
+
+The news of my approaching departure saddened the supper-table.
+Madame Morin, who, for all I know, may be alive now, was a most
+kind-hearted woman.  At table she announced her resolve that as I
+had decided on going, and as I should only leave my house to take
+leave of her, she would not force me to put myself out to such an
+extent, and ordained that our farewells should be said that
+evening.
+
+"At least," I said, "I may have the honour of escorting you to
+your door?"
+
+"That will protract our happiness for some minutes."  Valenglard
+went away on foot, and the fair Mdlle. Roman sat on my knee.  I
+dared to be bold with her, and contrary to expectation she shewed
+herself so kind that I was half sorry I was going; but the die was
+cast.
+
+A carriage lying overturned on the road outside an inn made my
+coachman stop a short while, and this accident which made the poor
+driver curse overwhelmed me with joy, for in these few moments I
+obtained all the favours that she could possibly give under the
+circumstances.
+
+Happiness enjoyed alone is never complete.  Mine was not until I
+assured myself, by looking at my sweetheart's features, that the
+part she had taken had not been an entirely passive one; and I
+escorted the ladies to their room.  There, without any conceit, I
+was certain that I saw sadness and love upon that fair creature's
+face.  I could see that she was neither cold nor insensible, and
+that the obstacles she had put in my way were only suggested by
+fear and virtue.  I gave Madame Morin a farewell kiss, and she was
+kind enough to tell her niece to give me a similar mark of
+friendship, which she did in a way that shewed me how completely
+she had shared my ardour.
+
+I left them, feeling amorous and sorry I had obliged myself to go.
+On entering my room I found the three nymphs together, which vexed
+me as I only wanted one.  I whispered my wishes to Rose as she
+curled my hair, but she told me it was impossible for her to slip
+away as they all slept in one room.  I then told them that I was
+going away the next day, and that if they would pass the night
+with me I would give them a present of six louis each.  They
+laughed at my proposal and said it couldn't possibly be done.  I
+saw by this they had not made confidantes of one another, as girls
+mostly do, and I also saw that they were jealous of each other.  I
+wished them a good night, and as soon as I was in bed the god of
+dreams took me under his care, and made me pass the night with the
+adorable Mdlle. Roman.
+
+I rang rather late in the morning, and the cousin came in and said
+that Rose would bring my chocolate, and that M. Charles Ivanoff
+wanted to speak to me.  I guessed that this was the Russian, but
+as he had not been introduced to me I thought I might decline to
+see him.
+
+"Tell him I don't know his name."
+
+Rose went out, and came in again saying he was the gentleman who
+had had the honour of supping with me at Madame Morin's.
+
+"Tell him to come in."
+
+"Sir," said he, "I want to speak with you in private."
+
+"I cannot order these young ladies to leave my room, sir.  Be kind
+enough to wait for me outside till I have put on my dressing-gown,
+and then I shall be ready to speak to you."
+
+"If I am troubling you, I will call again to-morrow."
+
+"You would not find me, as I am leaving Grenoble to-day."
+
+"In that case I will wait."
+
+I got up in haste and went out to him.
+
+"Sir," said he, "I must leave this place, and I have not a penny
+to pay my landlord.  I beg of you to come to my aid.  I dare not
+have recourse to anyone else in the town for fear of exposing
+myself to the insult of a refusal."
+
+"Perhaps I ought to feel myself flattered at the preference you
+have shewn me, but without wishing to insult you in any way I am
+afraid I shall be obliged to refuse your request."
+
+"If you knew who I am I am sure you would not refuse me some small
+help."
+
+"If you think so, tell me who you are; you may count on my
+silence."
+
+"I am Charles, second son of Ivan, Duke of Courland, who is in
+exile in Siberia.  I made my escape."
+
+"If you go to Genoa you will find yourself beyond the reach of
+poverty; for no doubt the brother of your lady-mother would never
+abandon you."
+
+"He died in Silesia."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Two years ago, I believe."
+
+"You have been deceived, for I saw him at Stuttgart scarcely six
+months ago.  He is the Baron de Treiden."
+
+It did not cost me much to get wind of the adventurer, but I felt
+angry that he had had the impudence to try and dupe me.  If it had
+not been for that I would willingly have given him six louis, for
+it would have been bad form on my part to declare war against
+adventurers, as I was one myself, and I ought to have pardoned his
+lies as nearly all adventurers are more or less impostors.
+I gave a glance at his diamond buckles, which were considered real
+at Grenoble, and I saw directly that they were counterfeits of a
+kind made in Venice, which imitate the facets of the diamonds in
+perfection, except to people who are experienced in diamonds.
+
+"You have diamond buckles," said I.  "Why don't you sell them?"
+
+"It's the last piece of jewellery I possess out of all my mother
+gave me, and I promised her never to part with them."
+
+"I would not shew those buckles if I were you; your pocket would
+be a better place for them.  I may tell you frankly that I believe
+the stones to be counterfeit, and that your lie displeases me."
+
+"Sir, I am not a liar."
+
+"We shall see.  Prove that the stones are genuine, and I will give
+you six louis.  I shall be delighted if I am in the wrong.
+Farewell."
+
+Seeing M. de Valerlglard coming up to my door, he begged me not to
+tell him of what had passed between us; and I promised that I
+would tell no one.
+
+Valenglard came to wish me a prosperous journey; he himself was
+obliged to go with M. Monteinard.  He begged me to correspond
+constantly with him, and I had been intending to prefer the same
+request, as I took too great an interest in the fair Mdlle. Roman
+not to wish to hear of her fate, and the correspondence the worthy
+officer desired was the best way possible for me to hear about
+her.  As will be imagined, I promised what he asked without making
+any difficulty.  He shed tears as he embraced me, and I promised
+to be his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+My Departure from Grenoble--Avignon--The Fountain of Vaucluse--The
+False Astrodi and the Humpback--Gaetan Costa--I Arrive at
+Marseilles
+
+While the three girls were helping Le Duc to pack my mails my
+landlord entered, gave me his bill, and finding everything correct
+I paid him, much to his satisfaction.  I owed him a compliment,
+too, at which he seemed extremely gratified.
+
+"Sir," said I, "I do not wish to leave your house without having
+the pleasure of dining with your charming girls, to shew them how
+I appreciate the care they have taken of me.  Let me have, then, a
+delicate repast for four, and also order post horses, that I may
+start in the evening."
+
+"Sir," broke in Le Duc, "I entreat you to order a saddle-horse
+besides; I was not made for a seat behind a chaise."
+
+The cousin laughed openly at his vain boasting, and to avenge
+himself the rascal told her that he was better than she.
+
+"Nevertheless, M. le Duc, you will have to wait on her at table."
+
+"Yes, as she waits on you in bed."
+
+I ran for my stick, but the rogue, knowing what was going to
+happen, opened the window and jumped into the courtyard.  The
+girls gave a shriek of terror, but when we looked out we saw him
+jumping about and performing a thousand apish tricks.
+
+Very glad to find that he had not broken a limb, I called out,
+"Come back, I forgive you."  The girls, and the man himself who
+escaped so readily, were as delighted as I.  Le Duc came in in
+high spirits, observing that he did not know he was such a good
+jumper.
+
+"Very good, but don't be so impudent another time.  Here, take
+this watch."
+
+So saying, I gave him a valuable gold watch, which he received,
+saying,--
+
+"I would jump again for another watch like this."
+
+Such was my Spaniard, whom I had to dismiss two years afterwards.
+I have often missed him.
+
+The hours went by with such speed when I was seated at table with
+the three girls, whom I vainly endeavoured to intoxicate, that I
+decided that I would not leave till the next day.  I was tired of
+making mysteries and wanted to enjoy them all together, and
+resolved that the orgy should take place that night.  I told them
+that if they would pass the night in my room I would not go till
+the next day.  This proposition was received with a storm of
+exclamations and with laughter, as at an impossibility, while I
+endeavoured to excite them to grant my request.  In the midst of
+this the door-keeper came in, advising me not to travel by night,
+but to go to Avignon by a boat in which I could ship my carriage.
+
+"You will save time and money," said he.
+
+"I will do so," I answered, "if these girls of yours will keep me
+company all night, as I am determined I will not go to bed."
+
+"O Lord!" said he with a laugh, "that's their business."
+
+This decided them and they gave in.  The door-keeper sent to order
+the boat, and promised to let me have a dainty supper by midnight.
+
+The hours passed by in jests and merriment, and when we sat down
+to supper I made the champagne corks fly to such an extent that
+the girls began to get rather gay.  I myself felt a little heated,
+and as I held each one's secret I had the hardihood to tell them
+that their scruples were ridiculous, as each of them had shewn no
+reserve to me in private.
+
+At this they gazed at one another in a kind of blank surprise, as
+if indignant at what I had said.  Foreseeing that feminine pride
+might prompt them to treat my accusation as an idle calumny, I
+resolved not to give them time, and drawing Manon on to my knee I
+embraced her with such ardour that she gave in and abandoned
+herself to my passion.  Her example overcame the others, and for
+five hours we indulged in every kind of voluptuous enjoyment.  At
+the end of that time we were all in need of rest, but I had to go.
+I wanted to give them some jewels, but they said they would rather
+I ordered gloves to the amount of thirty louis, the money to be
+paid in advance, and the gloves not to be called for.
+
+I went to sleep on board the boat, and did not awake till we got
+to Avignon.  I was conducted to the inn of "St. Omen" and supped
+in my room in spite of the marvellous tales which Le Duc told me
+of a young beauty at the public table.
+
+Next morning my Spaniard told me that the beauty and her husband
+slept in a room next to mine.  At the same time he brought me a
+bill of the play, and I saw Company from Paris, with Mdlle.
+Astrodi, who was to sing and dance.  I gave a cry of wonder, and
+exclaimed,--
+
+"The famous Astrodi at Avignon--how she will be astonished to see
+me!"
+
+Not wanting to live in hermit fashion, I went downstairs to dine
+at the public table, and I found a score of people sitting down to
+such a choice repast that I could not conceive how it could be
+done for forty sous a head.  The fair stranger drew all eyes, and
+especially mine, towards her.  She was a young and perfect beauty,
+silent, her eyes fixed on a napkin, replying in monosyllables to
+those who addressed her, and glancing at the speaker with large
+blue eyes, the beauty of which it would be difficult to describe.
+Her husband was seated at the other end of the table--a man of a
+kind that inspires contempt at the first glance.  He was young,
+marked with the small-pox, a greedy eater, a loud talker, laughing
+and speaking at random, and altogether I took him for a servant in
+disguise.  Feeling sure that such a fellow did not know how to
+refuse, I sent him a glass of champagne, which he drank off to my
+health forthwith.  "May I have the pleasure of sending a glass to
+your wife?"  He replied, with a roar of laughter, to ask her
+myself; and with a slight bow she told me that she never took
+anything to drink.  When the dessert came in she rose, and her
+husband followed her to their room.
+
+A stranger who like myself had never seen her before, asked me who
+she was.  I said I was a newcomer and did not know, and somebody
+else said that her husband called himself the Chevalier Stuard,
+that he came from Lyons, and was going to Marseilles; he came, it
+appeared, to Avignon a week ago, without servants, and in a very
+poor carriage.
+
+I intended staying at Avignon only as long as might be necessary
+to see the Fountain or Fall of Vaucluse, and so I had not got any
+letters of introduction, and had not the pretext of acquaintance
+that I might stay and enjoy her fine eyes.  But an Italian who had
+read and enjoyed the divine Petrarch would naturally wish to see
+the place made divine by the poet's love for Laura.  I went to the
+theatre, where I saw the vice-legate Salviati, women of fashion,
+neither fair nor foul, and a wretched comic opera; but I neither
+saw Astrodi nor any other actor from the Comedie Italienne at
+Paris.
+
+"Where is the famous Astrodi?" said I, to a young man sitting by
+me, "I have not seen her yet."
+
+"Excuse me, she has danced and sang before your eyes."
+
+"By Jove, it's impossible!  I know her perfectly, and if she has
+so changed as not to be recognized she is no longer herself."
+
+I turned to go, and two minutes after the young man I had
+addressed came up and begged me to come back, and he would take me
+to Astradi's dressing-room, as she had recognized me.  I followed
+him without saying a word, and saw a plain-looking girl, who threw
+her arms round my neck and addressed me by my name, though I could
+have sworn I had never seen her before, but she did not leave me
+time to speak.  Close by I saw a man who gave himself out as the
+father of the famous Astrodi, who was known to all Paris, who had
+caused the death of the Comte d'Egmont, one of the most amiable
+noblemen of the Court of Louis XV.  I thought this ugly female
+might be her sister, so I sat down and complimented her on her
+talents.  She asked if I would mind her changing her dress; and in
+a moment she was running here and there, laughing and shewing a
+liberality which possibly might have been absent if what she had
+to display had been worth seeing.
+
+I laughed internally at her wiles, for after my experiences at
+Grenoble she would have found it a hard task to arouse my desires
+if she had been as pretty as she was ugly.  Her thinness and her
+tawny skin could not divert my attention from other still less
+pleasing features about her.  I admired her confidence in spite of
+her disadvantages.  She must have credited me with a diabolic
+appetite, but these women often contrive to extract charms out of
+their depravity which their delicacy would be impotent to furnish.
+She begged me to sup with her, and as she persisted I was obliged
+to refuse her in a way I should not have allowed myself to use
+with any other woman.  She then begged me to take four tickets for
+the play the next day, which was to be for her benefit.  I saw it
+was only a matter of twelve francs, and delighted to be quit of
+her so cheaply I told her to give me sixteen.  I thought she would
+have gone mad with joy when I gave her a double louis.  She was
+not the real Astrodi.  I went back to my inn and had a delicious
+supper in my own room.
+
+While Le Duc was doing my hair before I went to bed, he told me
+that the landlord had paid a visit to the fair stranger and her
+husband before supper, and had said in clear terms that he must be
+paid next morning; and if he were not, no place would be laid for
+them at table, and their linen would be detained.
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"I heard it from here; their room is only separated from this by a
+wooden partition.  If they were in it now, I am sure they could
+hear all we are saying."
+
+"Where are they, then?"
+
+"At table, where they are eating for to-morrow, but the lady is
+crying.  There's a fine chance for you, sir."
+
+"Be quiet; I shan't have anything to do with it.  It's a trap, for
+a woman of any worth would die rather than weep at a public
+table."
+
+"Ah, if you saw how pretty she looks in tears!  I am only a poor
+devil, but I would willingly give her two louis if she would earn
+them."
+
+"Go and offer her the money."
+
+A moment after the gentleman and his wife came back to their room,
+and I heard the loud voice of the one and the sobs of the other,
+but as he was speaking Walloon I did not understand what he said.
+
+"Go to bed," said I to Le Duc, "and next morning tell the landlord
+to get me another room, for a wooden partition is too thin a
+barrier to keep off people whom despair drive to extremities."
+
+I went to bed myself, and the sobs and muttering did not die away
+till midnight.
+
+I was shaving next morning, when Le Duc announced the Chevalier
+Stuard.
+
+"Say I don't know anybody of that name."
+
+He executed my orders, and returned saying that the chevalier on
+hearing my refusal to see him had stamped with rage, gone into his
+chamber, and come out again with his sword beside him.
+
+"I am going to see," added Le Duc, "that your pistols are well
+primed for the future."
+
+I felt inclined to laugh, but none the less I admired the
+foresight of my Spaniard, for a man in despair is capable of
+anything.
+
+"Go," said I, "and ask the landlord to give me another room."
+
+In due course the landlord came himself and told me that he could
+not oblige me until the next day.
+
+"If you don't get me another room I shall leave your house on the
+spot, because I don't like hearing sobs and reproaches all night."
+
+"Can you hear them, sir?"
+
+"You can hear them yourself now.  What do you think of it?  The
+woman will kill herself, and you will be the cause of her death."
+
+"I, sir?  I have only asked them to pay me my just debts."
+
+"Hush! there goes the husband.  I am sure he is telling his wife
+in his language that you are an unfeeling monster."
+
+"He may tell her what he likes so long as he pays me."
+
+"You have condemned them to die of hunger.  How much do they owe
+you?"
+
+"Fifty francs."
+
+"Aren't you ashamed of making such a row for a wretched sum like
+that?"
+
+"Sir, I am only ashamed of an ill deed, and I do not commit such a
+deed in asking for my own."
+
+"There's your money.  Go and tell them that you have been paid,
+and that they may eat again; but don't say who gave you the
+money."
+
+"That's what I call a good action," said the fellow; and he went
+and told them that they did not owe him anything, but that they
+would never know who paid the money.
+
+"You may dine and sup," he added, "at the public table, but you
+must pay me day by day."
+
+After he had delivered this speech in a high voice, so that I
+could hear as well as if I had been in the room, he came back to
+me.
+
+"You stupid fool!" said I, pushing him away, "they will know
+everything."  So saying I shut my door.
+
+Le Duc stood in front of me, staring stupidly before him.
+
+"What's the matter with you, idiot?" said I.
+
+"That's fine.  I see.  I am going on the stage.  You would do well
+to become an actor."
+
+"You are a fool."
+
+"Not so big a fool as you think."
+
+"I am going for a walk; mind you don't leave my room for a
+moment."
+
+I had scarcely shut the door when the chevalier accosted me and
+overwhelmed me with thanks.
+
+"Sir, I don't know to what you are referring."
+
+He thanked me again and left me, and walking by the banks of the
+Rhone, which geographers say is the most rapid river in Europe, I
+amused myself by looking at the ancient bridge.  At dinner-time I
+went back to the inn, and as the landlord knew that I paid six
+francs a meal he treated me to an exquisite repast.  Here, I
+remember, I had some exceedingly choice Hermitage.  It was so
+delicious that I drank nothing else.  I wished to make a
+pilgrimage to Vaucluse and begged the landlord to procure me a
+good guide, and after I had dressed I went to the theatre.
+
+I found the Astrodi at the door, and giving her my sixteen
+tickets, I sat down near the box of the vice-legate Salviati, who
+came in a little later, surrounded by a numerous train of ladies
+and gentlemen bedizened with orders and gold lace.
+
+The so-called father of the false Astrodi came and whispered that
+his daughter begged me to say that she was the celebrated Astrodi
+I had known at Paris.  I replied, also in a whisper, that I would
+not run the risk of being posted as a liar by bolstering up an
+imposture.  The ease with which a rogue invites a gentleman to
+share in a knavery is astonishing; he must think his confidence
+confers an honour.
+
+At the end of the first act a score of lackeys in the prince's
+livery took round ices to the front boxes.  I thought it my duty
+to refuse.  A young gentleman, as fair as love, came up to me, and
+with easy politeness asked me why I had refused an ice.
+
+"Not having the honour to know anyone here, I did not care that
+anyone should be able to say that he had regaled one who was
+unknown to him."
+
+"But you, sir, are a man who needs no introduction."
+
+"You do me too much honour."
+
+"You are staying at the 'St. Omer'!"
+
+"Yes; I am only stopping here to see Vaucluse, where I think of
+going to-morrow if I can get a good guide."
+
+"If you would do me the honour of accepting me, I should be
+delighted.  My name is Dolci, I am son of the captain of the vice-
+legate's guard."
+
+"I feel the honour you do me, and I accept your obliging offer.  I
+will put off my start till your arrival."
+
+"I will be with you at seven."
+
+I was astonished at the easy grace of this young Adonis, who might
+have been a pretty girl if the tone of his voice had not announced
+his manhood.  I laughed at the false Astrodi, whose acting was as
+poor as her face, and who kept staring at me all the time.  While
+she sang she regarded me with a smile and gave me signs of an
+understanding, which must have made the audience notice me, and
+doubtless pity my bad taste.  The voice and eyes of one actress
+pleased me; she was young and tall, but hunchbacked to an
+extraordinary degree.  She was tall in spite of her enormous
+humps, and if it had not been for this malformation she would have
+been six feet high.  Besides her pleasing eyes and very tolerable
+voice I fancied that, like all hunchbacks, she was intelligent.  I
+found her at the door with the ugly Astrodi when I was leaving the
+theatre.  The latter was waiting to thank me, and the other was
+selling tickets for her benefit.
+
+After the Astrodi had thanked me, the hunchbacked girl turned
+towards me, and with a smile that stretched from ear to ear and
+displayed at least twenty-four exquisite teeth, she said that she
+hoped I would honour her by being present at her benefit.
+
+"If I don't leave before it comes off, I will," I replied.
+
+At this the impudent Astrodi laughed, and in the hearing of
+several ladies waiting for their carriages told me that her friend
+might be sure of my presence, as she would not let me go before
+the benefit night.  "Give him sixteen tickets," she added.  I was
+ashamed to refuse, and gave her two louis.  Then in a lower voice
+the Astrodi said, "After the show we will come and sup with you,
+but on the condition that you ask nobody else, as we want to be
+alone."
+
+In spite of a feeling of anger, I thought that such a supper-party
+would be amusing, and as no one in the town knew me I resolved to
+stay in the hope of enjoying a hearty laugh.
+
+I was having my supper when Stuard and his wife went to their
+room.  This night I heard no sobs nor reproaches, but early next
+morning I was surprised to see the chevalier who said, as if we
+had been old friends, that he had heard that I was going to
+Vaucluse, and that as I had taken a carriage with four places he
+would be much obliged if I would allow him and his wife, who
+wanted to see the fountain, to go with me.  I consented.
+
+Le Duc begged to be allowed to accompany me on horseback, saying
+that he had been a true prophet.  In fact it seemed as if the
+couple had agreed to repay me for my expenditure by giving me new
+hopes.  I was not displeased with the expedition, and it was all
+to my advantage, as I had had recourse to no stratagems to obtain
+it.
+
+Dolci came, looking as handsome as an angel; my neighbours were
+ready, and the carriage loaded with the best provisions in food
+and drink that were obtainable; and we set off, Dolci seated
+beside the lady and I beside the chevalier.
+
+I had thought that the lady's sadness would give place, if not to
+gaiety, at least to a quiet cheerfulness, but I was mistaken; for,
+to all my remarks, grave or gay, she replied, either in
+monosyllables or in a severely laconic style.  Poor Dolci, who was
+full of wit, was stupefied.  He thought himself the cause of her
+melancholy, and was angry with himself for having innocently cast
+a shadow on the party of pleasure.  I relieved him of his fears by
+telling him that when he offered me his pleasant society I was not
+aware that I was to be of service to the fair lady.  I added that
+when at day-break I received this information, I was pleased that
+he would have such good company.  The lady did not say a word.
+She kept silent and gloomy all the time, and gazed to right and
+left like one who does not see what is before his [her] eyes.
+
+Dolci felt at ease after my explanation, and did his best to
+arouse the lady, but without success.  He talked on a variety of
+topics to the husband, always giving her an opportunity of joining
+in, but her lips remained motionless.  She looked like the statue
+of Pandora before it had been quickened by the divine flame.
+
+The beauty of her face was perfect; her eyes were of a brilliant
+blue, her complexion a delicate mixture of white and red, her arms
+were as rounded as a Grace's, her hands plump and well shaped, her
+figure was that of a nymph's, giving delightful hints of a
+magnificent breast; her hair was a chestnut brown, her foot small:
+she had all that constitutes a beautiful woman save that gift of
+intellect, which makes beauty more beautiful, and gives a charm to
+ugliness itself.  My vagrant fancy shewed me her naked form, all
+seemed ravishing, and yet I thought that though she might inspire
+a passing fancy she could not arouse a durable affection.  She
+might minister to a man's pleasures, she could not make him happy.
+I arrived at the isle resolved to trouble myself about her no
+more; she might, I thought, be mad, or in despair at finding
+herself in the power of a man whom she could not possibly love.  I
+could not help pitying her, and yet I could not forgive her for
+consenting to be of a party which she knew she must spoil by her
+morose behaviour.
+
+As for the self-styled Chevalier Stuard, I did not trouble my head
+whether he were her husband or her lover.  He was young,
+commonplace-looking, he spoke affectedly; his manners were not
+good, and his conversation betrayed both ignorance and stupidity.
+He was a beggar, devoid of money and wits, and I could not make
+out why he took with him a beauty who, unless she were over-kind,
+could add nothing to his means of living.  Perhaps he expected to
+live at the expense of simpletons, and had come to the conclusion,
+in spite of his ignorance, that the world is full of such;
+however, experience must have taught him that this plan cannot be
+relied on.
+
+When we got to Vaucluse I let Dolci lead; he had been there a
+hundred times, and his merit was enhanced in my eyes by the fact
+that he was a lover of the lover of Laura.  We left the carriage
+at Apt, and wended our way to the fountain which was honoured that
+day with a numerous throng of pilgrims.  The stream pours forth
+from a vast cavern, the handiwork of nature, inimitable by man.
+It is situated at the foot of a rock with a sheer descent of more
+than a hundred feet.  The cavern is hardly half as high, and the
+water pours forth from it in such abundance that it deserves the
+name of river at its source.  It is the Sorgue which falls into
+the Rhone near Avignon.  There is no other stream as pure and
+clear, for the rocks over which it flows harbour no deposits of
+any kind.  Those who dislike it on account of its apparent
+blackness should remember that the extreme darkness of the cavern
+gives it that gloomy tinge.
+
+          Chiare fresche a dolce aque
+          Ove le belle membra
+          Pose colei the sola a me pay donna.
+
+I wished to ascend to that part of the rock where Petrarch's house
+stood.  I gazed on the remains with tears in my eyes, like Leo
+Allatius at Homer's grave.  Sixteen years later I slept at Arqua,
+where Petrarch died, and his house still remains.  The likeness
+between the two situations was astonishing, for from Petrarch's
+study at Arqua a rock can be seen similar to that which may be
+viewed at Vaucluse; this was the residence of Madonna Laura.
+
+"Let us go there," said I, "it is not far off."
+
+I will not endeavour to delineate my feelings as I contemplated
+the ruins of the house where dwelt the lady whom the amorous
+Petrarch immortalised in his verse--verse made to move a heart of
+stone:
+
+          "Morte bella parea nel suo bel viso"
+
+I threw myself with arms outstretched upon the ground as if I
+would embrace the very stones.  I kissed them, I watered them with
+my tears, I strove to breathe the holy breath they once contained.
+I begged Madame Stuard's pardon for having left her arm to do
+homage to the spirit of a woman who had quickened the profoundest
+soul that ever lived.
+
+I say soul advisedly, for after all the body and the senses had
+nothing to do with the connection.
+
+"Four hundred years have past and gone," said I to the statue of a
+woman who gazed at me in astonishment, "since Laura de Sade walked
+here; perhaps she was not as handsome as you, but she was lively,
+kindly, polite, and good of heart.  May this air which she
+breathed and which you breathe now kindle in you the spark of fire
+divine; that fire that coursed through her veins, and made her
+heart beat and her bosom swell.  Then you would win the worship of
+all worthy men, and from none would you receive the least offence.
+Gladness, madam, is the lot of the happy, and sadness the portion
+of souls condemned to everlasting pains.  Be cheerful, then, and
+you will do something to deserve your beauty."
+
+The worthy Dolci was kindled by my enthusiasm.  He threw himself
+upon me, and kissed me again and again; the fool Stuard laughed;
+and his wife, who possibly thought me mad, did not evince the
+slightest emotion.  She took my arm, and we walked slowly towards
+the house of Messer Francesco d'Arezzo, where I spent a quarter of
+an hour in cutting my name.  After that we had our dinner.
+
+Dolci lavished more attention on the extraordinary woman than I
+did.  Stuard did nothing but eat and drink, and despised the
+Sorgue water, which, said he, would spoil the Hermitage; possibly
+Petrarch may have been of the same opinion.  We drank deeply
+without impairing our reason, but the lady was very temperate.
+When we reached Avignon we bade her farewell, declining the
+invitation of her foolish husband to come and rest in his rooms.
+
+I took Dolci's arm and we walked beside the Rhone as the sun went
+down.  Among other keen and witty observations the young man
+said,--
+
+"That woman is an old hand, infatuated with a sense of her own
+merit.  I would bet that she has only left her own country because
+her charms, from being too freely displayed, have ceased to please
+there.  She must be sure of making her fortune out of anybody she
+comes across.  I suspect that the fellow who passes for her
+husband is a rascal, and that her pretended melancholy is put on
+to drive a persistent lover to distraction.  She has not yet
+succeeded in finding a dupe, but as she will no doubt try to catch
+a rich man, it is not improbable that she is hovering over you.".
+
+When a young man of Dolci's age reasons like that, he is bound to
+become a great master.  I kissed him as I bade him good-night,
+thanked him for his kindness, and we agreed that we would see more
+of one another.
+
+As I came back to my inn I was accosted by a fine-looking man of
+middle age, who greeted me by name and asked with great politeness
+if I had found Vaucluse as fine as I had expected.  I was
+delighted to recognize the Marquis of Grimaldi, a Genoese, a
+clever and good-natured man, with plenty of money, who always
+lived at Venice because he was more at liberty to enjoy himself
+there than in his native country; which shews that there is no
+lack of freedom at Venice.
+
+After I had answered his question I followed him into his room,
+where having exhausted the subject of the fountain he asked me
+what I thought of my fair companion.
+
+"I did not find her satisfactory in all respects," I answered; and
+noticing the reserve with which I spoke, he tried to remove it by
+the following confession:
+
+"There are some very pretty women in Genoa, but not one to compare
+with her whom you took to Vaucluse to-day.  I sat opposite to her
+at table yesterday evening, and I was struck with her perfect
+beauty.  I offered her my arm up the stair; I told her that I was
+sorry to see her so sad, and if I could do anything for her she
+had only to speak.  You know I was aware she had no money.  Her
+husband, real or pretended, thanked me for my offer, and after I
+had wished them a good night I left them.
+
+"An hour ago you left her and her husband at the door of their
+apartment, and soon afterwards I took the liberty of calling.  She
+welcomed me with a pretty bow, and her husband went out directly,
+begging me to keep her company till his return.  The fair one made
+no difficulty in sitting next to me on a couch, and this struck me
+as a good omen, but when I took her hand she gently drew it away.
+I then told, her, in as few words as I could, that her beauty had
+made me in love with her, and that if she wanted a hundred louis
+they were at her service, if she would drop her melancholy, and
+behave in a manner suitable to the feelings with which she had
+inspired me.  She only replied by a motion of the head, which
+shewed gratitude, but also an absolute refusal of my offer.  'I am
+going to-morrow,' said I.  No answer.  I took her hand again, and
+she drew it back with an air of disdain which wounded me.  I
+begged her to excuse me, and I left the room without more ado.
+
+"That's an account of what happened an hour ago.  I am not amorous
+of her, it was only a whim; but knowing, as I do, that she has no
+money, her manner astonished me.  I fancied that you might have
+placed her in a position to despise my offer, and this would
+explain her conduct, in a measure; otherwise I can't understand it
+at all.  May I ask you to tell me whether you are more fortunate
+than I?"
+
+I was enchanted with the frankness of this noble gentleman, and
+did not hesitate to tell him all, and we laughed together at our
+bad fortune: I had to promise to call on him at Genoa, and tell
+him whatever happened between us during the two days I purposed to
+remain at Avignon.  He asked me to sup with him and admire the
+fair recalcitrant.
+
+"She has had an excellent dinner," said I, "and in all probability
+she will not have any supper."
+
+"I bet she will," said the marquis; and he was right, which made
+me see clearly that the woman was playing a part.  A certain Comte
+de Bussi, who had just come, was placed next to her at table.  He
+was a good-looking young man with a fatuous sense of his own
+superiority, and he afforded us an amusing scene.
+
+He was good-natured, a wit, and inclined to broad jokes, and his
+manner towards women bordered on the impudent.  He had to leave at
+midnight and began to make love to his fair neighbour forthwith,
+and teased her in a thousand ways; but she remained as dumb as a
+statue, while he did all the talking and laughing, not regarding
+it within the bounds of possibility that she might be laughing at
+him.
+
+I looked at M. Grimaldi, who found it as difficult to keep his
+countenance as I did.  The young roue was hurt at her silence, and
+continued pestering her, giving her all the best pieces on his
+plate after tasting them first.  The lady refused to take them,
+and he tried to put them into her mouth, while she repulsed him in
+a rage.  He saw that no one seemed inclined to take her part, and
+determined to continue the assault, and taking her hand he kissed
+it again and again.  She tried to draw it away, and as she rose he
+put his arm round her waist and made her sit down on his knee; but
+at this point the husband took her arm and led her out of the
+room.  The attacking party looked rather taken aback for a moment
+as he followed her with his eyes, but sat down again and began to
+eat and laugh afresh, while everybody else kept a profound
+silence.  He then turned to the footman behind his chair and asked
+him if his sword was upstairs.  The footman said no, and then the
+fatuous young man turned to an abbe who sat near me, and enquired
+who had taken away his mistress:
+
+"It was her husband," said the abbe.
+
+"Her husband!  Oh, that's another thing; husbands don't fight--a
+man of honour always apologises to them."
+
+With that he got up, went upstairs, and came down again directly,
+saying,--
+
+"The husband's a fool.  He shut the door in my face, and told me
+to satisfy my desires somewhere else.  It isn't worth the trouble
+of stopping, but I wish I had made an end of it."
+
+He then called for champagne, offered it vainly to everybody, bade
+the company a polite farewell and went upon his way.
+
+As M. Grimaldi escorted me to my room he asked me what I had
+thought of the scene we had just witnessed.  I told him I would
+not have stirred a finger, even if he had turned up her clothes.
+
+"No more would I," said he, "but if she had accepted my hundred
+louis it would have been different.  I am curious to know the
+further history of this siren, and I rely upon you to tell me all
+about it as you go through Genoa."
+
+He went away at day-break next morning.
+
+When I got up I received a note from the false Astrodi, asking me
+if I expected her and her great chum to supper.  I had scarcely
+replied in the affirmative, when the sham Duke of Courland I had
+left at Grenoble appeared on the scene.  He confessed in a humble
+voice that he was the son of clock-maker at Narva, that his
+buckles were valueless, and that he had come to beg an alms of me.
+I gave him four Louis, and he asked me to keep his secret.  I
+replied that if anyone asked me about him that I should say what
+was absolutely true, that I knew him nothing about him.  "Thank
+you; I am now going to Marseilles."  "I hope you will have a
+prosperous journey."  Later on my readers will hear.  how I found
+him at Genoa.  It is a good thing to know something about people
+of his kind, of whom there are far too many in the world.
+
+I called up the landlord and told him I wanted a delicate supper
+for three in my own room.
+
+He told me that I should have it, and then said, "I have just had
+a row with the Chevalier Stuard."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"Because he has nothing to pay me with, and I am going to turn
+them out immediately, although the lady is in bed in convulsions
+which are suffocating her."
+
+"Take out your bill in her charms."
+
+"Ah, I don't care for that sort of thing!  I am getting on in
+life, and I don't want any more scenes to bring discredit on my
+house."
+
+"Go and tell her that from henceforth she and her husband will
+dine and sup in their own room and that I will pay for them as
+long as I remain here."
+
+"You are very generous, sir, but you know that meals in a private
+room are charged double."
+
+"I know they are."
+
+"Very good."
+
+I shuddered at the idea of the woman being turned out of doors
+without any resources but her body, by which she refused to
+profit.  On the other hand I could not condemn the inn-keeper who,
+like his fellows, was not troubled with much gallantry.  I had
+yielded to an impulse of pity without any hopes of advantage for
+myself.  Such were my thoughts when Stuard came to thank me,
+begging me to come and see his wife and try and persuade her to
+behave in a different manner.
+
+"She will give me no answers, and you know that that sort of thing
+is rather tedious."
+
+"Come, she knows what you have done for her; she will talk to you,
+for her feelings .  .  .  ."
+
+"What business have you to talk about feelings after what happened
+yesterday evening?"
+
+"It was well for that gentleman that he went away at midnight,
+otherwise I should have killed him this morning."
+
+"My dear sir, allow me to tell you that all that is pure
+braggadocio.  Yesterday, not to-day, was the time to kill him, or
+to throw your plate at his head, at all events.  We will now go
+and see your wife."
+
+I found her in bed, her face to the wall, the coverlet right up to
+her chin, and her body convulsed with sobs.  I tried to bring her
+to reason, but as usual got no reply.  Stuard wanted to leave me,
+but I told him that if he went out I would go too, as I could do
+nothing to console her, as he might know after her refusing the
+Marquis of Grimaldi's hundred louis for a smile and her hand to
+kiss.
+
+"A hundred Louis!" cried the fellow with a sturdy oath; "what
+folly! We might have been at home at Liege by now.  A princess
+allows one to kiss her hand for nothing, and she....  A hundred
+Louis!  Oh, damnable!"
+
+His exclamations, very natural under the circumstances, made me
+feel inclined to laugh.  The poor devil swore by all his gods, and
+I was about to leave the room, when all at once the wretched woman
+was seized with true or false convulsions.  With one hand she
+seized a water-bottle and sent it flying into the middle of the
+room, and with the other she tore the clothes away from her
+breast.  Stuard tried to hold her, but her disorder increased in
+violence, and the coverlet was disarranged to such a degree that I
+could see the most exquisite naked charms imaginable.  At last she
+grew calm, and her eyes closed as if exhausted; she remained in
+the most voluptuous position that desire itself could have
+invented.  I began to get very excited.  How was I to look on such
+beauties without desiring to possess them?  At this point her
+wretched husband left the room, saying he was gone to fetch some
+water.  I saw the snare, and my self-respect prevented my being
+caught in it.  I had an idea that the whole scene had been
+arranged with the intent that I should deliver myself up to brutal
+pleasure, while the proud and foolish woman would be free to
+disavow all participation in the fact.  I constrained myself, and
+gently veiled what I would fain have revealed in all its naked
+beauty.  I condemned to darkness these charms which this monster
+of a woman only wished me to enjoy that I might be debased.
+
+Stuard was long enough gone.  When he came back with the water-
+bottle full, he was no doubt surprised to find me perfectly calm,
+and in no disorder of any kind, and a few minutes afterwards I
+went out to cool myself by the banks of the Rhone.
+
+I walked along rapidly, feeling enraged with myself, for I felt
+that the woman had bewitched me.  In vain I tried to bring myself
+to reason; the more I walked the more excited I became, and I
+determined that after what I had seen the only cure for my
+disordered fancy was enjoyment, brutal or not.  I saw that I
+should have to win her, not by an appeal to sentiment but by hard
+cash, without caring what sacrifices I made.  I regretted my
+conduct, which then struck me in the light of false delicacy, for
+if I had satisfied my desires and she chose to turn prude, I might
+have laughed her to scorn, and my position would have been
+unassailable.  At last I determined on telling the husband that I
+would give him twenty-five louis if he could obtain me an
+interview in which I could satisfy my desires.
+
+Full of this idea I went back to the inn, and had my dinner in my
+own room without troubling to enquire after her.  Le Duc told me
+that she was dining in her room too, and that the landlord had
+told the company that she would not take her meals in public any
+more.  This was information I possessed already.
+
+After dinner I called on the good-natured Dolci, who introduced me
+to his father, an excellent man, but not rich enough to satisfy
+his son's desire of travelling.  The young man was possessed of
+considerable dexterity, and performed a number of very clever
+conjuring tricks.  He had an amiable nature, and seeing that I was
+curious to know about his love affairs he told me numerous little
+stories which shewed me that he was at that happy age when one's
+inexperience is one's sole misfortune.
+
+There was a rich lady for whom he did not care, as she wanted him
+to give her that which he would be ashamed to give save for love,
+and there was a girl who required him to treat her with respect.
+I thought I could give him a piece of good advice, so I told him
+to grant his favours to the rich woman, and to fail in respect now
+and again to the girl, who would be sure to scold and then
+forgive.  He was no profligate, and seemed rather inclined to
+become a Protestant.  He amused himself innocently with his
+friends of his own age, in a garden near Avignon, and a sister of
+the gardener's wife was kind to him when they were alone.
+
+In the evening I went back to the inn, and I had not long to wait
+for the Astrodi and the Lepi (so the hunchbacked girl was named);
+but when I saw these two caricatures of women I felt stupefied.  I
+had expected them, of course, but the reality confounded me.  The
+Astrodi tried to counterbalance her ugliness by an outrageous
+freedom of manners; while the Lepi, who though a hunchback was
+very talented and an excellent actress, was sure of exciting
+desire by the rare beauty of her eyes and teeth, which latter
+challenged admiration from her enormous mouth by their regularity
+and whiteness.  The Astrodi rushed up to me and gave me an Italian
+embrace, to which, willy nilly, I was obliged to submit.  The
+quieter Lepi offered me her cheek, which I pretended to kiss.  I
+saw that the Astrodi was in a fair way to become intolerable, so I
+begged her to moderate her transports, because as a novice at
+these parties I wanted to get accustomed to them by degrees.  She
+promised that she would be very good.
+
+While we were waiting for supper I asked her, for the sake of
+something to say, whether she had found a lover at Avignon.
+
+"Only the vice-legate's auditor," she replied; "and though he
+makes me his pathic he is good-natured and generous.  I have
+accustomed myself to his taste easily enough, though I should have
+thought such a thing impossible a year ago, as I fancied the
+exercise a harmful one, but I was wrong."
+
+"So the auditor makes a boy of you?"
+
+"Yes.  My sister would have adored him, as that sort of love is
+her passion."
+
+"But your sister has such fine haunches."
+
+"So have I!  Look here, feel me."
+
+"You are right; but wait a bit, it is too soon for that kind of
+thing yet."
+
+"We will be wanton after supper."
+
+"I think you are wanton now," said the Lepi.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why?  Ought you to shew your person like that?"
+
+"My dear girl, you will be shewing yourself soon.  When one is in
+good company, one is in the golden age."
+
+"I wonder at your telling everyone what sort of a connection you
+have with the auditor," said I.
+
+"Nonsense!  I don't tell everyone, but everyone tells me and
+congratulates me too.  They know the worthy man never cared for
+women, and it would be absurd to deny what everybody guesses.  I
+used to be astonished at my sister, but the best plan in this
+world is to be astonished at nothing.  But don't you like that?"
+
+"No, I only like this."
+
+As I spoke I laid hands on the Lepi, on the spot where one usually
+finds what I called "this;" but the Astrodi, seeing that I found
+nothing, burst into a roar of laughter, and taking my hand put it
+just under her front hump, where at last I found what I wanted.
+The
+reader will guess my surprise.  The poor creature, too ashamed to
+be prudish, laughed too.  My spirits also begin to rise, as I
+thought of the pleasure I should get out of this new discovery
+after supper.
+
+"Have you never had a lover?" said I to the Lepi.
+
+"No," said the Astrodi, "she is still a maid."
+
+"No, I am not," replied the Lepi, in some confusion, "I had a
+lover at Bordeaux, and another at Montpellier."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you are still as you were born."
+
+"I can't deny it."
+
+"What's that?  Two lovers and still a maid!  I don't understand;
+please tell me about it, for I have never heard of such a thing."
+
+"Before I satisfied my first lover which happened when I was only
+twelve, I was just the same as I am now."
+
+"It's wonderful.  And what did he say when he saw it?"
+
+"I swore that he was my first, and he believed me, putting it down
+to the peculiar shape of my body."
+
+"He was a man of spirit; but didn't he hurt you?"
+
+"Not a bit; but then he was very gentle."
+
+"You must have a try after supper," said the Astrodi to me, "that
+would be fine fun."
+
+"No, no," said the Lepi, "the gentleman would be too big for me."
+
+"Nonsense!  You don't want to take in all of him.  I will show you
+how it is."
+
+With these words the impudent hussy proceeded to exhibit me, and I
+let her do what she liked.
+
+"That's just what I should have thought," cried the Lepi; "it
+could never be done."
+
+"Well, he is rather big," answered the Astrodi ; "but there's a
+cure for everything, and he will be content with half-measures."
+
+"It's not the length, my dear, but the thickness which frightens
+me; I am afraid the door is too narrow."
+
+"All the better for you, for you can sell your maidenhead after
+having had two lovers."
+
+This conversation, not devoid of wit, and still more the
+simplicity of the hunchback, had made me resolve to verify things
+for myself.
+
+Supper came up, and I had the pleasure of seeing the two nymphs
+eat like starving savages, and drink still better.  When the
+Hermitage had done its work the Astrodi proposed that we should
+cast off the clothes which disfigure nature.
+
+"Certainly," said I; "and I will turn away while you are getting
+ready."
+
+I went behind the curtains, took off my clothes, and went to bed
+with my back to them.  At last the Astrodi told me that they were
+ready, and when I looked the Lepi took up all my attention.  In
+spite of her double deformity she was a handsome woman.  My
+glances frightened her, for she was doubtless taking part in an
+orgy for the first time.  I gave her courage, however, by dint of
+praising those charms which the white and beautiful hands could
+not hide, and at last I persuaded her to come and lie beside me.
+Her hump prevented her lying on her back, but the ingenious
+Astrodi doubled up the pillows and succeeded in placing her in a
+position similar to that of a ship about to be launched.  It was
+also by the tender care of the Astrodi that the introduction of
+the knife was managed, to the great delight of priest and victim.
+After the operation was over she got up and kissed me, which she
+could not do before, for her mouth reached to the middle of my
+chest, while my feet were scarcely down to her knees.  I would
+have given ten louis to have been able to see the curious sight we
+must have presented at work.
+
+"Now comes my turn," said the Astrodi; "but I don't want you to
+infringe on the rights of my auditor, so come and look round and
+see where the path lies.  Take that."
+
+"What am I to do with this slice of lemon?"
+
+"I want you to try whether the place is free from infection, or
+whether it would be dangerous for you to pay it a visit."
+
+"Is that a sure method?"
+
+"Infallible; if everything were not right I could not bear the
+smart."
+
+"There you are.  How's that?"
+
+"All right; but don't deceive me, I want no half measures.  My
+reputation would be made if I became with child."
+
+I ask my reader's leave to draw a veil over some incidents of this
+truly scandalous orgy, in which the ugly woman taught me some
+things I did not know before.  At last, more tired than exhausted,
+I told them to begone, but the Astrodi insisted on finishing up
+with a bowl of punch.  I agreed, but not wishing to have anything
+more to do with either of them I dressed myself again.  However,
+the champagne punch excited them to such an extent that at last
+they made me share their transports.  The Astrodi placed her
+friend in such a singular position that the humps were no longer
+visible, and imagining that I had before me the high priestess of
+Jove, I paid her a long sacrifice, in which death and resurrection
+followed one another in succession.  But I felt disgusted with
+myself, and drew away from their lascivious frenzies, and gave
+them ten Louis to get rid of them.  The Astrodi fell on her knees,
+blessed me, thanked me, called me her god; and the Lepi wept and
+laughed for joy at the same time; and thus for a quarter of an
+hour I was treated to a scene of an extraordinary kind.
+
+I had them taken home in my carriage, and slept till ten o'clock
+next morning.  Just as I was going out for a walk Stuard came to
+my room and told me, with an air of despair, that if I did not
+give him the means of going away before I left he would throw
+himself in the Rhine.
+
+"That's rather tragic," said I, "but I can find a cure.  I will
+disburse twenty-five Louis, but it is your wife who must receive
+them; and the only condition is that she must receive me alone for
+an hour, and be entirely kind."
+
+"Sir, we need just that sum; my wife is disposed to receive you;
+go and talk to her.  I shall not be in till noon."
+
+I put twenty-five Louis in a pretty little purse, and left my room
+thinking that the victory was won.  I entered her room and
+approached her bed respectfully.  When she heard me she sat up in
+bed without taking the trouble to cover her breast, and before I
+could wish her good-day she spoke to me as follows:
+
+"I am ready, sir, to pay with my body for the wretched twenty-five
+Louis of which my husband is in need.  You can do what you like
+with me; but remember that in taking advantage of my position to
+assuage your brutal lust you are the viler of the two, for I only
+sell myself so cheaply because necessity compels me to do so.
+Your baseness is more shameful than mine.  Come on; here I am."
+
+With this flattering address she threw off the coverlet with a
+vigorous gesture, and displayed all her beauties, which I might
+have gazed on with such different feelings from those which now
+filled my breast.  For a moment I was silent with indignation.
+All my passion had evaporated; in those voluptuous rounded limbs I
+saw now only the covering of a wild beast's soul.  I put back the
+coverlet with the greatest calmness, and addressed her in a tone
+of cold contempt:
+
+"No, madam, I shall not leave this room degraded because you have
+told me so, but I shall leave it after imparting to you a few
+degrading truths, of which you cannot be ignorant if you are a
+woman of any decency whatever.  Here are twenty-five louis, a
+wretched sum to give a virtuous woman in payment of her favours,
+but much more than you deserve.  I am not brutal, and to convince
+you of the fact I am going to leave you in the undisturbed
+possession of your charms, which I despise as heartily as I should
+have admired them if your behaviour had been different.  I only
+give you the money from a feeling of compassion which I cannot
+overcome, and which is the only feeling I now have for you.
+Nevertheless, let me tell you that whether a woman sells herself
+for twenty-five louis or twenty-five million louis she is as much
+a prostitute in the one case as in the other, if she does not give
+her love with herself, or at all events the semblance of love.
+Farewell."
+
+I went back to my room, and in course of time Stuard came to thank
+me.
+
+"Sir," said I, "let me alone; I wish to hear no more about your
+wife."
+
+They went away the next day for Lyons, and my readers will hear of
+them again at Liege.
+
+In the afternoon Dolci took me to his garden that I might see the
+gardener's sister.  She was pretty, but not so pretty as he was.
+He soon got her into a good humour, and after some trifling
+objection she consented to be loved by him in my presence.  I saw
+that this Adonis had been richly dowered by nature, and I told him
+that with such a physical conformation he had no need of emptying
+his father's purse to travel, and before long he took my advice.
+This fair Ganymede might easily have turned me into Jove, as he
+struggled amorously with the gardener's sister.
+
+As I was going home I saw a young man coming out of a boat; he was
+from twenty to twenty-five years old, and looked very sad.  Seeing
+me looking at him, he accosted me, and humbly asked for alms,
+shewing me a document authorizing him to beg, and a passport
+stating he had left Madrid six weeks before.  He came from Parma,
+and was named Costa.  When I saw Parma my national prejudice spoke
+in his favour, and I asked him what misfortune had reduced him to
+beggary.
+
+"Only lack of money to return to my native country," said he.
+
+"What were you doing at Madrid, and why did you leave?"
+
+"I was there four years as valet to Dr. Pistoria, physician to the
+King of Spain, but on my health failing I left him.  Here is a
+certificate which will shew you that I gave satisfaction."
+
+"What can you do?"
+
+"I write a good hand, I can assist a gentleman as his secretary,
+and I intend being a scribe when I get home.  Here are some verses
+I copied yesterday."
+
+"You write well; but can you write correctly without a book?"
+
+"I can write from dictation in French, Latin, and Spanish."
+
+"Correctly?"
+
+"Yes, sir, if the dictation is done properly, for it is the
+business of the one who dictates to see that everything is
+correct."
+
+I saw that Master Gaetan Costa was an ignoramus, but in spite of
+that I took him to my room and told Le Duc to address him in
+Spanish.  He answered well enough, but on my dictating to him in
+Italian and French I found he had not the remotest ideas on
+orthography.
+
+"But you can't write," said I to him.  However, I saw he was
+mortified at this, and I consoled him by saying that I would take
+him to his own country at my expense.  He kissed my hand, and
+assured me that I should find a faithful servant in him.
+
+This young fellow took my fancy by his originality; he had
+probably assumed it to distinguish himself from the blockheads
+amongst whom he had hitherto lived, and now used it in perfect
+good faith with everybody.  He thought that the art of a scribe
+solely consisted in possessing a good hand, and that the fairest
+writer would be the best scribe.  He said as much while he was
+examining a paper I had written, and as my writing was not as
+legible as his he tacitly told me I was his inferior, and that I
+should therefore treat him with some degree of respect.  I laughed
+at this fad, and, not thinking him incorrigible I took him into my
+service.  If it had not been for that odd notion of his I should
+probably have merely given him a louis, and no more.  He said that
+spelling was of no consequence, as those who knew how to spell
+could easily guess the words, while those who did not know were
+unable to pick out the mistakes.  I laughed, but as I said nothing
+he thought the laugh signified approval.  In the dictation I gave
+him the Council of Trent happened to occur.  According to his
+system he wrote Trent by a three and a nought.  I burst out
+laughing; but he was not in the least put out, only remarking that
+the pronunciation being the same it was of no consequence how the
+word was spelt.  In point of fact this lad was a fool solely
+through his intelligence, matched with ignorance and unbounded
+self-confidence.  I was pleased with his originality and kept him,
+and was thus the greater fool of the two, as the reader will see.
+
+I left Avignon next day, and went straight to Marseilles, not
+troubling to stop at Aix.  I halted at the "Treize Cantons,"
+wishing to stay for a week at least in this ancient colony of the
+Phocaeans, and to do as I liked there.  With this idea I took no
+letter of introduction; I had plenty of money, and needed nobody's
+help.  I told my landlord to give me a choice fish dinner in my
+own room, as I was aware that the fish in those parts is better
+than anywhere else.
+
+I went out the next morning with a guide, to take me back to the
+inn when I was tired of walking.  Not heeding where I went, I
+reached a fine quay; I thought I was at Venice again, and I felt
+my bosom swell, so deeply is the love of fatherland graven on the
+heart of every good man.  I saw a number of stalls where Spanish
+and Levantine wines were kept, and a number of people drinking in
+them.  A crowd of business men went hither and thither, running up
+against each other, crossing each other's paths, each occupied
+with his own business, and not caring whose way he got into.
+Hucksters, well dressed and ill dressed, women, pretty and plain,
+women who stared boldly at everyone, modest maidens with downcast
+eyes, such was the picture I saw.
+
+The mixture of nationalities, the grave Turk and the glittering
+Andalusian, the French dandy, the gross Negro, the crafty Greek,
+the dull Hollander; everything reminded me of Venice, and I
+enjoyed the scene.
+
+I stopped a moment at a street corner to read a playbill, and then
+I went back to the inn and refreshed my weary body with a
+delicious dinner, washed down with choice Syracusan wine.  After
+dinner I dressed and took a place in the amphitheatre of the
+theatre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Rosalie--Toulon--Nice--I Arrive at Genoa--M. Grimaldi--Veronique
+and Her Sister
+
+
+I noticed that the four principal boxes on both sides of the
+proscenium were adorned with pretty women, but not a single
+gentleman.  In the interval between the first and second acts I
+saw gentlemen of all classes paying their devoirs to these ladies.
+Suddenly I heard a Knight of Malta say to a girl, who was the sole
+occupant of a box next to me,
+
+"I will breakfast with you to-morrow."
+
+This was enough for me.  I looked at her more closely and finding
+her to be a dainty morsel I said, as soon as the knight had gone,-
+
+"Will you give me my supper?"
+
+"With pleasure; but I have been taken in so often that I shan't
+expect you without an earnest."
+
+"How can I give you an earnest?  I don't understand."
+
+"You must be a new-comer here."
+
+"Just arrived."
+
+She laughed, called the knight, and said,--
+
+"Be pleased to explain to this gentleman, who has just asked me
+for supper, the meaning of the word 'earnest.'"
+
+The good-natured knight explained, with a smile, that the lady,
+fearing lest my memory should prove defective, wanted me to pay
+for my supper in advance.  I thanked him, and asked her if a louis
+would be enough; and on her replying in the affirmative, I gave
+her the Louis and asked for her address.  The knight told me
+politely that he would take me there himself after the theatre,
+adding,--
+
+"She's the wantonest wench in all Marseilles."
+
+He then asked me if I knew the town, and when I told him that I
+had only come that day he said he was glad to be the first to make
+my acquaintance.  We went to the middle of, the amphitheatre and
+he pointed out a score of girls to right and left, all of them
+ready to treat the first comer to supper.  They are all on the
+free list, and the manager finds they serve his ends as
+respectable women will not sit in their boxes, and they draw
+people to the theatre.  I noticed five or six of a better type
+than the one I had engaged, but I resolved to stick to her for the
+evening, and to make the acquaintance of the others another time.
+
+"Is your favourite amongst them?" I said to the knight.
+
+"No, I keep a ballet-girl, and I will introduce you to her, as I
+am glad to say that I am free from all jealousy."
+
+When the play came to an end he took me to my nymph's lodging, and
+we parted with the understanding that we were to see more of one
+another.
+
+I found the lady in undress--a circumstance which went against
+her, for what I saw did not please me.  She gave me a capital
+supper, and enlivened me by some witty and wanton sallies which
+made me regard her in a more favourable light.  When we had supper
+she got into bed, and asked me to follow her example; but I told
+her that I never slept out.  She then offered me the English
+article which brings peace to the soul, but I did not accept the
+one she offered as I thought it looked of a common make.
+
+"I have finer ones, but they are three francs each, and the maker
+only sells them by the dozen," she said.  "I will take a dozen if
+they are really good," I replied.
+
+She rang the bell, and a young, charming, and modest-looking girl
+came in.  I was struck with her.
+
+"You have got a nice maid," I remarked, when the girl had gone for
+the protective sheaths.
+
+"She is only fifteen," she said, "and won't do anything, as she is
+new to it."
+
+"Will you allow me to see for myself?"
+
+"You may ask her if you like, but I don't think she will consent."
+
+The girl came back with the packet, and putting myself in a proper
+position I told her to try one on.  She proceeded to do so with a
+sulky air and with a kind of repugnance which made me feel
+interested in her.  Number one would not go on, so she had to try
+on a second, and the result was that I besprinkled her
+plentifully.  The mistress laughed, but she was indignant, threw
+the whole packet in my face, and ran away in a rage.  I wanted
+nothing more after this, so I put the packet in my pocket, gave
+the woman two Louis, and left the room.  The girl I had treated so
+cavalierly came to light me downstairs, and thinking I owed her an
+apology I gave her a Louis and begged her pardon.  The poor girl
+was astonished, kissed my hand, and begged me to say nothing to
+her mistress.
+
+"I will not, my dear, but tell me truly whether you are still a
+'virgo intacta'."
+
+"Certainly, sir!"
+
+"Wonderful!  but tell me why you wouldn't let me see for myself?"
+
+"Because it revolted me."
+
+"Nevertheless you will have to do so, for otherwise, in spite of
+your prettiness, people will not know what to make of you.  Would
+you like to let me try?"
+
+"Yes, but not in this horrible house."
+
+"Where, then?"
+
+"Go to my mother's to-morrow, I will be there.  Your guide knows
+where she lives."
+
+When I got outside, I asked the man if he knew her.  He replied in
+the affirmative, and said he believed her to be an honest girl.
+
+"You will take me to-morrow to see her mother," I said.
+
+Next morning he took me to the end of the town, to a poor house,
+where I found a poor woman and poor children living on the ground
+floor, and eating hard black bread.
+
+"What do you want?" said she.
+
+"Is you daughter here?"
+
+"No, and what if she were?  I am not her bawd."
+
+"No, of course not, my good woman."
+
+Just then the girl came in, and the enraged mother flung an old
+pot which came handy, at her head.  Luckily it missed, but she
+would not have escaped her mother's talons if I had not flung
+myself between them.  However, the old woman set up a dismal
+shriek, the children imitated her, and the poor girl began to cry.
+This hubbub made my man come in.
+
+"You hussy!" screamed the mother, "you are bringing disgrace on
+me; get out of my house.  You are no longer my daughter!"
+
+I was in a difficult position.  The man begged her not to make
+such a noise, as it would draw all the neighbours about the house;
+but the enraged woman answered only by abuse.  I drew six francs
+from my pocket and gave them to her, but she flung them in my
+face.  At last I went out with the daughter, whose hair she
+attempted to pull out by the roots, which project was defeated by
+the aid of my man.  As soon as we got outside, the mob which the
+uproar had attracted hooted me and followed me, and no doubt I
+should have been torn to pieces if I had not escaped into a
+church, which I left by another door a quarter of an hour later.
+My fright saved me, for I knew the ferocity of the Provencals, and
+I took care not to reply a word to the storm of abuse which poured
+on me.  I believe that I was never in greater danger than on that
+day.
+
+Before I got back to my inn I was rejoined by the servant and the
+girl.
+
+"How could you lead me into such a dangerous position?" said I.
+"You must have known your mother was savage."
+
+"I hoped she would behave respectfully to you."
+
+"Be calm; don't weep any more.  Tell me how I can serve you."
+
+"Rather than return to that horrible house I was in yesterday I
+would throw myself into the sea."
+
+"Do you know of any respectable house where I can keep her?" said
+I to the man.
+
+He told me he did know a respectable individual who let furnished
+apartments.
+
+"Take me to it, then."
+
+The man was of an advanced age, and he had rooms to let on all the
+floors.
+
+"I only want a little nook," said the girl; and the old man took
+us to the highest story, and opened the door of a garret, saying,-
+
+"This closet is six francs a month, a month's rent to be paid in
+advance, and I may tell you that my door is always shut at ten
+o'clock, and that nobody can come and pass the night with you."
+
+The room held a bed with coarse sheets, two chairs, a little
+table, and a chest of drawers.
+
+"How much will you board this young woman for?" said I.
+
+He asked twenty sous, and two sous for the maid who would bring
+her meals and do her room.
+
+"That will do," said the girl, and she paid the month's rent and
+the day's board.  I left her telling her I would come back again.
+
+As I went down the stairs I asked the old man to shew me a room
+for myself.  He skewed me a very nice one at a Louis a month, and
+I paid in advance.  He then gave me a latch-key, that I might go
+and come when I liked.
+
+"If you wish to board here," said he, "I think I could give
+satisfaction."
+
+Having done this good work, I had my dinner by myself, and then
+went to a coffee-house where I found the amiable Knight of Malta
+who was playing.  He left the game as soon as he saw me, put the
+fistfull of gold he had won into his pocket, accosted me with the
+politeness natural to a Frenchman, and asked me how I had liked
+the lady who had given me my supper.  I told him what had
+happened, at which he laughed, and asked me to come and see his
+ballet-girl.  We found her under the hairdresser's hands, and she
+received me with the playful familiarity with which one greets an
+old acquaintance.  I did not think much of her, but I pretended to
+be immensely struck, with the idea of pleasing the good-natured
+knight.
+
+When the hairdresser left her, it was time for her to get ready
+for the theatre, and she dressed herself, without caring who was
+present.  The knight helped her to change her chemise, which she
+allowed him to do as a matter of course, though indeed she begged
+me to excuse her.
+
+As I owed her a compliment, I could think of nothing better than
+to tell her that though she had not offended me she had made me
+feel very uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't believe you," said she.
+
+"It's true all the same."
+
+She came up to me to verify the fact, and finding I had deceived
+her, she said half crossly,
+
+"You are a bad fellow."
+
+The women of Marseilles are undoubtedly the most profligate in
+France.  They not only pride themselves on never refusing, but
+also on being the first to propose.  This girl skewed me a
+repeater, for which she had got up a lottery at twelve francs a
+ticket.  She had ten tickets left; I took them all, and so
+delighted was she to touch my five Louis that she came and kissed
+me, and told the knight that her unfaithfulness to him rested only
+with me.
+
+"I am charmed to hear it," said the Maltese.  He asked me to sup
+with her, and I accepted the invitation, but the sole pleasure I
+had was looking at the knight at work.  He was far inferior to
+Dolci!
+
+I wished them good night, and went to the house where I had placed
+the poor girl.  The maid skewed me to my room, and I asked her if
+I might go to the garret.  She took the light, I followed her up,
+and Rosalie, as the poor girl was named, heard my voice and opened
+the door.  I told the maid to wait for me in my room, and I went
+in and sat down on the bed.
+
+"Are you contented, dear?" I said.
+
+"I am quite happy."
+
+"Then I hope you will be kind, and find room for me in your bed."
+
+"You may come if you like, but I must tell you that you will not
+find me a maid, as I have had one lover."
+
+"You told me a lie, then?"
+
+"Forgive me, I could not guess you would be my lover."
+
+"I forgive you willingly; all the more so as I am no great
+stickler for maidenheads."
+
+She was as gentle as a lamb, and allowed me to gaze on all those
+charms of which my hands and my lips disputed the possession; and
+the notion that I was master of all these treasures put fire in
+all my veins, but her submissive air distressed me.
+
+"How is it you do not partake my desires?" said I.
+
+"I dare not, lest you take me for a pretender."
+
+Artifice or studied coquetry might have prompted such an answer,
+but the real timidity and the frankness with which these words
+were uttered could not have been assumed.  Impatient to gain
+possession of her I took off my clothes, and on getting into bed
+to her I was astonished to find her a maid.
+
+"Why did you tell me you had a lover?" said I.  "I never heard of
+a girl telling a lie of that sort before."
+
+"All the same I did not tell a lie, but I am very glad that I seem
+as if I had done so."
+
+"Tell me all about it."
+
+"Certainly I ,will, for I want to win your confidence.  This is
+the story:
+
+"Two years ago my mother, though she was hot-tempered, still loved
+me.  I was a needle-woman, and earned from twenty to thirty sous a
+day.  Whatever I earned I gave my mother.  I had never had a
+lover, never thought of such a thing, and when my goodness was
+praised I felt inclined to laugh.  I had been brought up from a
+child never to look at young men when I met them in the street,
+and never to reply to them when they addressed any impudence to
+me.
+
+"Two months ago a fine enough looking young man, a native of
+Genoa, and a merchant in a small way, came to my mother to get her
+to wash some very fine cotton stockings which the sea-water had
+stained.  When he saw me he was very complimentary, but in an
+honest way.  I liked him, and, no doubt seeing it, he came and
+came again every evening.  My mother was always present at our
+interviews, and he looked at me and talked to me, but did not so
+much as ask to kiss my hand.  My mother was very pleased to notice
+that the young man liked me, and often scolded me because I was
+not polite enough to him.  In time he had to go to Genoa in a
+small ship which belonged to him, and which was laden with goods.
+He assured us that he would return again the next spring and
+declare his intentions.  He said he hoped he should find me as
+good as ever, and still without any lover.  This was enough; my
+mother looked upon him as my betrothed, and let us talk together
+at the door till midnight.  When he went I would shut the door and
+lie down beside my mother, who was always asleep.
+
+"Four or five days before his departure, he took my arm and got me
+to go with him to a place about fifty paces from the house to
+drink a glass of Muscat at a Greek's, who kept his tavern open all
+night.  We were only away for half an hour, and then it was that
+he first kissed me.  When I got home I found my mother awake, and
+told her all; it seemed so harmless to me.
+
+"Next day, excited by the recollection of what had happened the
+night before, I went with him again, and love began to gain
+ground.  We indulged in caresses which were no longer innocent, as
+we well knew.  However, we forgave each other, as we had abstained
+from the chief liberty.
+
+"The day after, my lover--as he had to journey in the night--took
+leave of my mother, and as soon as she was in bed I was not longer
+in granting what I desired as much as he.  We went to the Greek's,
+ate and drank, and our heated senses gained love's cause; we
+forgot our duty, and fancied our misdemeanour a triumph.
+
+"Afterwards we fell asleep, and when we awoke we saw our fault in
+the clear, cold light of day.  We parted sorrowful rather than
+rejoicing, and the reception my mother gave me was like that you
+witnessed this morning.  I assured her that marriage would take
+away the shame of my sin, and with this she took up a stick and
+would have done for me, if I had not taken to my heels, more from
+instinct than from any idea of what I was doing.
+
+"Once in the street I knew not where to turn, and taking refuge in
+a church I stayed there like one in a dream till noon.  Think of
+my position.  I was hungry, I had no refuge, nothing but the
+clothes I wore, nothing that would get me a morsel of bread.  A
+woman accosted me in the street.  I knew her and I also knew that
+she kept a servants' agency.  I asked her forthwith if she could
+get me a place.
+
+"'I had enquiries about a maid this morning,' said she, 'but it is
+for a gay woman, and you are pretty.  You would have a good deal
+of difficulty in remaining virtuous.'
+
+"'I can keep off the infection,' I answered, 'and in the position
+I am in I cannot pick and choose.'
+
+"She thereupon took me to the lady, who was delighted to see me,
+and still more delighted when I told her that I had never had
+anything to do with a man.  I have repented of this lie bitterly
+enough, for in the week I spent at that profligate woman's house I
+have had to endure the most humiliating insults that an honest
+girl ever suffered.  No sooner did the men who came to the house
+hear that I was a maid than they longed to slake their brutal lust
+upon me, offering me gold if I would submit to their caresses.  I
+refused and was reviled, but that was not all.  Five or six times
+every day I was obliged to remain a witness of the disgusting
+scenes enacted between my mistress and her customers, who, when I
+was compelled to light them about the house at night, overwhelmed
+me with insults, because I would not do them a disgusting service
+for a twelve-sous piece.  I could not bear this sort of life much
+longer, and I was thinking of drowning myself.  When you came you
+treated me so ignominiously that my resolve to die was
+strengthened, but you were so kind and polite as you went away
+that I fell in love with you directly, thinking that Providence
+must have sent you to snatch me away from the abyss.  I thought
+your fine presence might calm my mother and persuade her to take
+me back till my lover came to marry me.  I was undeceived, and I
+saw that she took me for a prostitute.  Now, if you like, I am
+altogether yours, and I renounce my lover of whom I am no longer
+worthy.  Take me as your maid, I will love you and you only; I
+will submit myself to you and do whatever you bid me."
+
+Whether it were weakness or virtue on my part, this tale of woe
+and a mother's too great severity drew tears from my eyes, and
+when she saw my emotion she wept profusely, for her heart was in
+need of some relief.
+
+"I think, my poor Rosalie, you have only one chemise."
+
+"Alas! that is all."
+
+Comfort yourself, my dear; all your wants shall be supplied
+tomorrow, and in the evening you shall sup with me in my room on
+the second floor.  I will take care of you."
+
+"You pity me, then?"
+
+"I fancy there is more love than pity in it."
+
+"Would to God it were so!"
+
+This "would to God," which came from the very depths of her soul,
+sent me away in a merry mood.  The servant who had been waiting
+for me for two hours, and was looking rather glum, relaxed when
+she saw the colour of a crown which I gave her by way of
+atonement.
+
+"Tell your master," said I, "that Rosalie will sup with me to-
+morrow; let us have a fasting dinner, but let it be a good one."
+
+I returned to my inn quite in love with Rosalie, and I
+congratulated myself on having at last heard a true tale from a
+pretty mouth.  She appeared to me so well disposed that her small
+failing seemed to make her shine the more.  I resolved never to
+abandon her, and I did so in all sincerity; was I not in love?
+
+After I had had my chocolate next morning I went out with a guide
+to the shops, where I got the necessary articles, paying a good
+but not an excessive price.  Rosalie was only fifteen, but with
+her figure, her well-formed breasts, and her rounded arms, she
+would have been taken for twenty.  Her shape was so imprinted on
+my brain that everything I got for her fitted as if she had been
+measured for it.  This shopping took up all the morning, and in
+the afternoon the man took her a small trunk containing two
+dresses, chemises, petticoats, handkerchiefs, stockings, gloves,
+caps, a pair of slippers, a fan, a work-bag, and a mantle.  I was
+pleased at giving her such a delightful surprise, and I longed for
+suppertime that I might enjoy the sight of her pleasure.
+
+The Knight of Malta came to dine with me without ceremony, and I
+was charmed to see him.  After we had dined he persuaded me to go
+to the theatre, as in consequence of the suspense of the
+subscription arrangements the boxes would be filled with all the
+quality in Marseilles.
+
+"There will be no loose women in the amphitheatre," said he, "as
+everybody has to pay."
+
+That decided me and I went.  He presented me to a lady with an
+excellent connection, who asked me to come and see her.  I excused
+myself on the plea that I was leaving so shortly.  Nevertheless
+she was very useful to me on my second visit to Marseilles.  Her
+name was Madame Audibert.
+
+I did not wait for the play to end, but went where love called me.
+I had a delightful surprise when I saw Rosalie; I should not have
+known her.  But I cannot resist the pleasure of recalling her
+picture as she stood before me then, despite the years that have
+rolled by since that happy moment.
+
+Rosalie was an enticing-looking brunette, above the middle height.
+Her face was a perfect oval, and exquisitely proportioned.  Two
+fine black eyes shed a soft and ravishing light around.  Her
+eyebrows were arched, and she had a wealth of hair, black and
+shining as ebony; her skin was while and lightly tinged with
+colour.  On her chin was a dimple, and her slightest smile
+summoned into being two other dimples, one on each cheek.  Her
+mouth was small, disclosing two rows of fairest orient pearls, and
+from her red lips flowed forth an indefinable sweetness.  The
+lower lip projected ever so lightly, and seemed designed to hold a
+kiss.  I have spoken of her arms, her breast, and her figure,
+which left nothing to be desired, but I must add to this catalogue
+of her charms, that her hand was exquisitely shaped, and that her
+foot was the smallest I have ever seen.  As to her other beauties,
+I will content myself with saying that they were in harmony with
+those I have described.
+
+To see her at her best, one had to see her smiling; and hitherto
+she had been sad or vexed--states of mind which detract from a
+woman's appearance.  But now sadness was gone, and gratitude and
+pleasure had taken its place.  I examined her closely, and felt
+proud, as I saw what a transformation I had effected; but I
+concealed my surprise, lest she should think I had formed an
+unfavourable impression of her.  I proceeded, therefore, to tell
+her that I should expose myself to ridicule if I attempted to keep
+a beauty like herself for a servant.
+
+"You shall be my mistress," I said, "and my servants shall respect
+you as if you were my wife."
+
+At this Rosalie, as if I had given her another being, began to try
+and express her gratitude for what I had done.  Her words, which
+passion made confused, increased my joy; here was no art nor
+deceit, but simple nature.
+
+There was no mirror in her garret, so she had dressed by her sense
+of touch, and I could see that she was afraid to stand up and look
+at herself in the mirror in my room.  I knew the weak spot in all
+women's hearts (which men are very wrong in considering as matter
+for reproach), and I encouraged her to admire herself, whereupon
+she could not restrain a smile of satisfaction.
+
+"I think I must be in disguise," said she, "for I have never seen
+myself so decked out before."
+
+She praised the tasteful simplicity of the dress I had chosen, but
+was vexed at the thought that her mother would still be
+displeased.
+
+"Think no more of your mother, dearest one.  You look like a lady
+of quality, and I shall be quite proud when the people at Genoa
+ask me if you are my daughter."
+
+"At Genoa?"
+
+"Yes, at Genoa.  Why do you blush?"
+
+"From surprise; perhaps I may see there one whom I have not yet
+forgotten."
+
+"Would you like to stay here better?"
+
+"No, no!  Love me and be sure that I love you and for your own
+sake, not from any thought of my own interests."
+
+"You are moved, my angel; let me wipe away your tears with
+kisses."
+
+She fell into my arms, and she relieved the various feelings of
+which her heart was full by weeping for some time.  I did not try
+to console her, for she had not grief; she wept as tender souls,
+and women, more especially, often will.  We had a delicious supper
+to which I did honour for two, for she ate nothing.  I asked her
+if she was so unfortunate as not to care for good food.
+
+"I have as good an appetite as anyone," she replied, "and an
+excellent digestion.  You shall see for yourself when I grow more
+accustomed to my sudden happiness."
+
+"At least you can drink; this wine is admirable.  If you prefer
+Greek muscat I will send for some.  It will remind you of your
+lover."
+
+"If you love me at all, I beg you will spare me that
+mortification."
+
+"You shall have no more mortification from me, I promise you.  It
+was only a joke, and I beg your pardon for it."
+
+"As I look upon you I feel in despair at not having known you
+first."
+
+"That feeling of yours, which wells forth from the depths of your
+open soul, is grand.  You are beautiful and good, for you only
+yielded to the voice of love with the prospect of becoming his
+wife; and when I think what you are to me I am in despair at not
+being sure you love me.  An evil genius whispers in my ear that
+you only bear with me because I had the happiness of helping you."
+
+"Indeed, that is an evil genius.  To be sure, if I had met you in
+the street I should not have fallen head over ears in love with
+you, like a wanton, but you would certainly have pleased me.  I am
+sure I love you, and not for what you have done for me; for if I
+were rich and you were poor, I would do anything in the world for
+you.  But I don't want it to be like that, for I had rather be
+your debtor than for you to be mine.  These are my real feelings,
+and you can guess the rest."
+
+We were still talking on the same subject when midnight struck,
+and my old landlord came and asked me if I were pleased.
+
+"I must thank you," I replied, "I am delighted.  Who cooked this
+delicious supper?"
+
+"My daughter."
+
+"She understands her craft; tell her I thought it excellent."
+
+"Yes, sir, but it is dear."
+
+"Not too dear for me.  You shall be pleased with me as I with you,
+and take care to have as good a supper to-morrow evening, as I
+hope the lady will be well enough to do justice to the products of
+your daughter's culinary skill."
+
+"Bed is a capital place to get an appetite.  Ah! it is sixty years
+since I have had anything to do with that sort of thing.  What are
+you laughing at, mademoiselle?"
+
+"At the delight with which you must recollect it."
+
+"You are right, it is a pleasant recollection; and thus I am
+always ready to forgive young folks the peccadilloes that love
+makes them commit."
+
+"You are a wise old man," said I, "everyone should sympathise with
+the tenderest of all our mortal follies."
+
+"If the old man is wise," said Rosalie, when he had left the room,
+"my mother must be very foolish."
+
+"Would you like me to take you to the play to-morrow?"
+
+"Pray do not.  I will come if you like, but it will vex me very
+much.  I don't want to walk out with you or to go to the theatre
+with you here.  Good heavens !  What would people say.  No,
+neither at Marseilles; but elsewhere, anything you please and with
+all my heart."
+
+"Very good, my dear, just as you please.  But look at your room;
+no more garret for you; and in three days we will start."
+
+"So soon?"
+
+"Yes; tell me to-morrow what you require for the journey, for I
+don't want you to lack for anything, and if you leave it all to me
+I might forget something which would vex me."
+
+"Well, I should like another cloak, a cloak with a lining, some
+boots, a night-cap, and a prayer-book."
+
+"You know how to read, do you?"
+
+"Certainly; and I can write fairly well."
+
+"I am glad to hear it.  Your asking me so freely for what you want
+is a true proof of your love; where confidence dwells not there is
+no love.  I will not forget anything, but your feet are so small
+that I should advise you to get your boots yourself."
+
+Our talk was so pleasant, and I experienced such delight in
+studying her disposition, that we did not go to bed till five
+o'clock.  In the arms of love and sleep we spent seven delicious
+hours, and when we rose at noon we were fast lovers.  She called
+me thou, talked of love and not of gratitude, and, grown more
+familiar with her new estate, laughed at her troubles.  She kissed
+me at every opportunity, called me her darling boy, her joy, and
+as the present moment is the only real thing in this life, I
+enjoyed her love, I was pleased with her caresses, and put away
+all ideas of the dreadful future, which has only one certainty--
+death, 'ultima linea rerum'.
+
+The second night was far sweeter than the first; she had made a
+good supper, and drunk well, though moderately; thus she was
+disposed to refine on her pleasure, and to deliver herself with
+greater ardour to all the voluptuous enjoyments which love
+inspires.
+
+I gave her a pretty watch and a gold shuttle for her to amuse
+herself with.
+
+"I wanted it," said she, "but I should never have dared to ask for
+it."
+
+I told her that this fear of my displeasure made me doubt once
+more whether she really loved me.  She threw herself into my arms,
+and promised that henceforth she would shew me the utmost
+confidence.
+
+I was pleased to educate this young girl, and I felt that when her
+mind had been developed she would be perfect.
+
+On the fourth day I warned her to hold herself in readiness to
+start at a moment's notice.  I had said nothing about my plans to
+Costa or Le Duc, but Rosalie knew that I had two servants, and I
+told her that I should often make them talk on the journey for the
+sake of the laughter their folly would afford me.
+
+"You, my dear," I had said to her, "must be very reserved with
+them, and not allow them to take the slightest liberty.  Give them
+your orders as a mistress, but without pride, and you will be
+obeyed and respected.  If they forget themselves in the slightest
+particular, tell me at once."
+
+I started from the hotel of the "Treize Cantons" with four post-
+horses, Le Duc and Costa sitting on the coachman's seat.  The
+guide, whom I had paid well for his services, took us to Rosalie's
+door.  I got out of the carriage, and after thanking the kindly
+old landlord, who was sorry to lose so good a boarder, I made her
+get in, sat down beside her, and ordered the postillions to go to
+Toulon, as I wished to see that fine port before returning to
+Italy.  We got to Toulon at five o'clock.
+
+My Rosalie behaved herself at supper like the mistress of a house
+accustomed to the best society.  I noticed that Le Duc as head man
+made Costa wait upon her, but I got over him by telling my
+sweetheart that he would have the honour of doing her hair, as he
+could do it as well as the best barber in Paris.  He swallowed the
+golden pill, and gave in with a good grace, and said, with a
+profound bow, that he hoped to give madam satisfaction.
+
+We went out next morning to see the port, and were shewn over the
+place by the commandant, whose acquaintance we made by a lucky
+chance.  He offered his arm to Rosalie, and treated her with the
+consideration she deserved for her appearance and the good sense
+of her questions.  The commandant accepted my invitation to
+dinner, at which Rosalie spoke to the point though not to excess,
+and received the polite compliments of our worthy guest with much
+grace.  In the afternoon he took us over the arsenal, and after
+having him to dinner could not refuse his invitation to supper.
+There was no difficulty about Rosalie; the commandant introduced
+her immediately to his wife, his daughter, and his son.  I was
+delighted to see that her manner with ladies even surpassed her
+manner with gentlemen.  She was one of Nature's own ladies.  The
+commandant's wife and daughter caressed her again and again, and
+she received their attentions with that modest sensibility which
+is the seal of a good education.
+
+They asked me to dinner the next day, but I was satisfied with
+what I had seen, so I took leave, intending to start on the
+morrow.
+
+When we got back to the inn I told her how pleased I was with her,
+and she threw her arms round my neck for joy.
+
+"I am always afraid," said she, "of being asked who I am."
+
+"You needn't be afraid, dearest; in France no gentleman or lady
+would think of asking such a question."
+
+"But if they did, what ought I to do?"
+
+"You should make use of an evasion."
+
+"What's an evasion?"
+
+"A way of escaping from a difficulty without satisfying
+impertinent curiosity."
+
+"Give me an example."
+
+"Well, if such a question were asked you, you might say, 'You had
+better ask this gentleman.'"
+
+"I see, the question is avoided; but is not that impolite?"
+
+"Yes; but not so impolite as to ask an embarrassing question."
+
+"And what would you say if the question was passed on to you?"
+
+"Well, my answer would vary in a ratio with the respect in which I
+held the questioner.  I would not tell the truth, but I should say
+something.  And I am glad to see you attentive to my lessons.
+Always ask questions, and you will always find me ready to answer,
+for I want to teach you.  And now let us to bed; we have to start
+for Antibes at an early hour, and love will reward you for the
+pleasure you have given me to-day."
+
+At Antibes I hired a felucca to take me to Genoa, and as I
+intended to return by the same route I had my carriage warehoused
+for a small monthly payment.  We started early with a good wind,
+but the sea becoming rough, and Rosalie being mortally afraid, I
+had the felucca rowed into Villafranca, where I engaged a carriage
+to take me to Nice.  The weather kept us back for three days, and
+I felt obliged to call on the commandant, an old officer named
+Peterson.
+
+He gave me an excellent reception, and after the usual compliments
+had passed, said,--
+
+"Do you know a Russian who calls himself Charles Ivanoff?"
+
+"I saw him once at Grenoble."
+
+"It is said that he has escaped from Siberia, and that he is the
+younger son of the Duke of Courland."
+
+"So I have heard, but I know no proof of his claim to the title."
+
+"He is at Genoa, where it is said a banker is to give him twenty
+thousand crowns.  In spite of that, no one would give him a sou
+here, so I sent him to Genoa at my own expense, to rid the place
+of him."
+
+I felt very glad that the Russian had gone away before my arrival.
+An officer named Ramini, who was staying at the same inn as
+myself, asked if I would mind taking charge of a packet which
+M. de St.  Pierre, the Spanish consul, had to send to the Marquis
+Grimaldi, at Genoa.  It was the nobleman I had just seen at Avignon,
+and I was pleased to execute the commission.  The same officer
+asked me whether I had ever seen a certain Madame Stuard.
+
+"She came here a fortnight ago with a man who calls himself her
+husband.  The poor devils hadn't a penny, and she, a great beauty,
+enchanted everybody, but would give no one a smile or a word."
+
+"I have both seen and know her," I answered.  "I furnished her
+with the means to come here.  How could she leave Nice without any
+money?"
+
+"That's just what no one can understand.  She went off in a
+carriage, and the landlord's bill was paid.  I was interested in
+the woman.  The Marquis Grimaldi told me that she had refused a
+hundred louis he offered her, and that a Venetian of his
+acquaintance had fared just as badly.  Perhaps that is you?"
+
+"It is, and I gave her some money despite my treatment."
+
+M. Peterson came to see me, and was enchanted with Rosalie's
+amiable manner.  This was another conquest for her, and I duly
+complimented her upon it.
+
+Nice is a terribly dull place, and strangers are tormented by the
+midges, who prefer them to the inhabitants.  However, I amused
+myself at a small bank at faro, which was held at a coffee-house,
+and at which Rosalie, whose play I directed, won a score of
+Piedmontese pistoles.  She put her little earnings into a purse,
+and told me she liked to have some money of her own.  I scolded
+her for not having told me so before, and reminded her of her
+promise.
+
+"I don't really want it," said she, "it's only my
+thoughtlessness."
+
+We soon made up our little quarrel.
+
+In such ways did I make this girl my own, in the hope that for the
+remnant of my days she would be mine, and so I should not be
+forced to fly from one lady to another.  But inexorable fate
+ordained it otherwise.
+
+The weather grew fine again, and we got on board once more, and
+the next day arrived at Genoa, which I had never seen before.  I
+put up at "St. Martin's Inn," and for decency's sake took two
+rooms, but they were adjoining one another.  The following day I
+sent the packet to M. Grimaldi, and a little later I left my card
+at his palace.
+
+My guide took me to a linen-draper's, and I bought some stuff for
+Rosalie, who was in want of linen.  She was very pleased with it.
+
+We were still at table when the Marquis Grimaldi was announced; he
+kissed me and thanked me for bringing the parcel.  His next remark
+referred to Madame Stuard.  I told him what had happened, and he
+laughed, saying that he was not quite sure what he would have done
+under the circumstances.
+
+I saw him looking at Rosalie attentively, and I told him she was
+as good as she was beautiful.
+
+"I want to find her a maid," I said, "a good seamstress, who could
+go out with her, and above all who could talk Italian to her, for
+I want her to learn the language that I may take her into society
+at Florence, Rome and Naples."
+
+"Don't deprive Genoa of the pleasure of entertaining her," said
+the marquis.  "I will introduce her under whatever name she
+pleases, and in my own house to begin with."
+
+"She has good reasons for preserving her incognito here."
+
+"Ah, I see!--Do you think of staying here long?"
+
+"A month, or thereabouts, and our pleasures will be limited to
+seeing the town and its surroundings and going to the theatre.  We
+shall also enjoy the pleasures of the table.  I hope to eat
+champignons every day, they are better here than anywhere else"
+
+"An excellent plan.  I couldn't suggest a better.  I am going to
+see what I can do in the way of getting you a maid, mademoiselle."
+
+"You sir?  How can I deserve such great kindness?"
+
+"My interest in you is the greater, as I think you come from
+Marseilles."
+
+Rosalie blushed.  She was not aware that she lisped, and that this
+betrayed her.  I extricated her from her confusion by telling the
+marquis his conjecture was well founded.
+
+I asked him how I could get the Journal de Savans, the Mercure de
+France, and other papers of the same description.  He promised to
+send me a man who would get me all that kind of thing.  He added
+that if I would allow him to send me some of his excellent
+chocolate he would come and breakfast with us.  I said that both
+gift and guest were vastly agreeable to me.
+
+As soon as he had gone Rosalie asked me to take her to a
+milliner's.
+
+"I want ribbons and other little things," said she, "but I should
+like to bargain for them and pay for them out of my own money,
+without your having anything to do with it."
+
+"Do whatever you like, my dear, and afterwards we will go to the
+play."
+
+The milliner to whom we went proved to be a Frenchwoman.  It was a
+charming sight to see Rosalie shopping.  She put on an important
+air, seemed to know all about it, ordered bonnets in the latest
+fashion, bargained, and contrived to spend five or six louis with
+great grandeur.  As we left the shop I told her that I had been
+taken for her footman, and I meant to be revenged.  So saying, I
+made her come into a jeweller's, where I bought her a necklace,
+ear-rings, and brooches in imitation diamonds, and without letting
+her say a word I paid the price and left the shop.
+
+"You have bought me some beautiful things," said she, "but you are
+too lavish with your money; if you had bargained you might have
+saved four louis at least."
+
+"Very likely, dearest, but I never was any hand at a bargain."
+
+I took her to the play, but as she did not understand the language
+she got dreadfully tired, and asked me to take her home at the end
+of the first act, which I did very willingly.  When we got in I
+found a box waiting for me from M. Grimaldi.  It proved to contain
+twenty-four pounds of chocolate.  Costa, who had boasted of his
+skill in making chocolate in the Spanish fashion, received orders
+to make us three cups in the morning.
+
+At nine o'clock the marquis arrived with a tradesman, who sold me
+some beautiful oriental materials.  I gave them to Rosalie to make
+two 'mezzaro' for herself.  The 'mezzaro' is a kind of hooded
+cloak worn by the Genoese women, as the 'cendal' is worn at
+Venice, and the 'mantilla' at Madrid.
+
+I thanked M. Grimaldi for the chocolate, which was excellent;
+Costa was quite proud of the praise the marquis gave him.  Le Duc
+came in to announce a woman, whose name I did not know.
+
+"It's the mother of the maid I have engaged," said M. Grimaldi.
+
+She came in, and I saw before me a well-dressed woman, followed by
+a girl from twenty to twenty-four years old, who pleased me at the
+first glance.  The mother thanked the marquis, and presented her
+daughter to Rosalie, enumerating her good qualities, and telling
+her that she would serve her well, and walk with her when she
+wished to go out.
+
+"My daughter," she added, "speaks French, and you will find her a
+good, faithful, and obliging girl."
+
+She ended by saying that her daughter had been in service lately
+with a lady, and that she would be obliged if she could have her
+meals by herself.
+
+The girl was named Veronique.  Rosalie told her that she was a
+good girl, and that the only way to be respected was to be
+respectable.  Veronique kissed her hand, the mother went away, and
+Rosalie took the girl into her room to begin her work.
+
+I did not forget to thank the marquis, for he had evidently chosen
+a maid more with a view to my likings than to those of my
+sweetheart.  I told him that I should not fail to call on him, and
+he replied that he would be happy to see me at any hour, and that
+I should easily find him at his casino at St. Pierre d'Arena,
+where he often spent the night.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH, Vol. 4a, DEPART SWITZERLAND
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Depart Switzerland, by Jacques Casanova
+#16 in our series by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+Title: Depart Switzerland, Casanova, v16
+
+Author: Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
+Release Date: December, 2001 [Etext #2966]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[Most recently updated: December 10, 2001]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Depart Switzerland, by Casanova
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+
+MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798
+ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH, Volume 4a--DEPART SWITZERLAND
+
+
+THE RARE UNABRIDGED LONDON EDITION OF 1894 TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR
+MACHEN TO WHICH HAS BEEN ADDED THE CHAPTERS DISCOVERED
+BY ARTHUR SYMONS.
+
+
+
+
+DEPART SWITZERLAND
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The Door--Keeper's Daughters--The Horoscopes--Mdlle. Roman
+
+The idea of the sorry plight in which I had left the Marquis de
+Prie, his mistress, and perhaps all the company, who had
+undoubtedly coveted the contents of my cash-box, amused me till I
+reached Chamberi, where I only stopped to change horses.  When I
+reached Grenoble, where I intended to stay a week, I did not find
+my lodging to my liking, and went in my carriage to the
+post-office, where I found several letters, amongst others, one
+from Madame d'Urfe, enclosing a letter of introduction to an
+officer named Valenglard, who, she told me, was a learned man, and
+would present me at all the best houses in the town.
+
+I called on this officer and received a cordial welcome.  After
+reading Madame d'Urfe's letter he said he was ready to be useful
+to me in anything I pleased.
+
+He was an amiable, middle aged man, and fifteen years before had
+been Madame d'Urfe's friend, and in a much more intimate degree
+the friend of her daughter, the Princess de Toudeville.  I told
+him that I was uncomfortable at the inn, and that the first
+service I would ask of him would be to procure me a comfortable
+lodging.  He rubbed his head, and said,--
+
+"I think I can get you rooms in a beautiful house, but it is
+outside the town walls.  The door-keeper is an excellent cook, and
+for the sake of doing your cooking I am sure he will lodge you for
+nothing."
+
+"I don't wish that," said I.
+
+"Don't be afraid," said the baron, "he will make it up by means of
+his dishes; and besides, the house is for sale and costs him
+nothing.  Come and see it."
+
+I took a suite of three rooms and ordered supper for two, warning
+the man that I was dainty, liked good things, and did not care for
+the cost.  I also begged M.  de Valenglard to sup with me.  The
+doorkeeper said that if I was not pleased with his cooking I had
+only to say so, and in that case I should have nothing to pay.  I
+sent for my carriage, and felt that I had established myself in my
+new abode.  On the ground floor I saw three charming girls and the
+door-keeper's wife, who all bowed profoundly.  M. de Valenglard
+took me to a concert with the idea of introducing me to everybody,
+but I begged him not to do so, as I wished to see the ladies
+before deciding which of them I should like to know.
+
+The company was a numerous one, especially where women were
+concerned, but the only one to attract my attention was a pretty
+and modest-looking brunette, whose fine figure was dressed with
+great simplicity.  Her charming eyes, after having thrown one
+glance in my direction, obstinately refused to look at me again.
+My vanity made me conclude at once that she behaved thus only to
+increase my desire of knowing her, and to give me plenty of time
+to examine her side-face and her figure, the proportions of which
+were not concealed by her simple attire.  Success begets
+assurance, and the wish is father to the thought.  I cast a hungry
+gaze on this young lady without more ado, just as if all the women
+in Europe were only a seraglio kept for my pleasures.  I told the
+baron I should like to know her.
+
+"She is a good girl," said he, "who sees no company, and is quite
+poor."
+
+"Those are three reasons which make me the more anxious to know
+her."
+
+"You will really find nothing to do in that quarter."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"There is her aunt, I will introduce you to her as we leave the
+concert-room."
+
+After doing me this service, he came to sup with me.  The
+door-keeper and cook struck me as being very like Lebel.  He made
+his two pretty daughters wait on me, and I saw that Valenglard was
+delighted at having lodged me to my satisfaction, but he grumbled
+when he saw fifteen dishes.
+
+"He is making a fool of you and me," he said.
+
+"On the contrary, he has guessed my tastes.  Don't you think
+everything was very good?"
+
+"I don't deny it, but .  .  .  "
+
+"Don't be afraid; I love spending my money."
+
+"I beg your pardon, I only want you to be pleased."
+
+We had exquisite wines, and at dessert some ratafia superior to
+the Turkish 'visnat' I had tasted seventeen years before at Yussuf
+Ali's.  When my landlord came up at the end of supper, I told him
+that he ought to be Louis XV.'s head cook.
+
+"Go on as you have begun, and do better if you can; but let me
+have your bill every morning."
+
+"You are quite right; with such an arrangement one can tell how
+one is getting on."
+
+"I should like you always to give me ices, and you must let me
+have two more lights.  But, unless I am mistaken, those are
+candles that I see.  I am a Venetian, and accustomed to wax
+lights."
+
+"That is your servant's fault, sir."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"Because, after eating a good supper, he went to bed, saying he
+was ill.  Thus I heard nothing as to how you liked things done."
+
+"Very good, you shall learn from my own lips."
+
+"He asked my wife to make chocolate for you tomorrow morning; he
+gave her the chocolate, I will make it myself."
+
+When he had left the room M. de Valenglard said, in a manner that
+was at the same time pleased and surprised, that Madame d'Urfe had
+been apparently joking in telling him to spare me all expense.
+
+"It's her goodness of heart.  I am obliged to her all the same.
+She is an excellent woman."
+
+We stayed at table till eleven o'clock, discussing in numerable
+pleasant topics, and animating our talk with that choice liqueur
+made at Grenoble, of which we drank a bottle.  It is composed of
+the juice of cherries, brandy, sugar, and cinnamon, and cannot be
+surpassed, I am sure, by the nectar of Olympus.
+
+I sent home the baron in my carriage, after thanking him for his
+services, and begging him to be my companion early and late while
+I stayed at Grenoble--a re quest which he granted excepting for
+those days on which he was on duty.  At supper I had given him my
+bill of exchange on Zappata, which I endorsed with the name de
+Seingalt, which Madame d'Urfe had given me.  He  discounted it for
+me next day.  A banker brought me four hundred louis and I had
+thirteen hundred in my cash-box.  I always had a dread of
+penuriousness, and I delighted myself at the thought that M. de
+Valenglard would write and tell Madame d'Urfe, who was always
+preaching economy to me, what he had seen.  I escorted my guest to
+the carriage, and I was agreeably surprised when I got back to
+find the doorkeeper's two charming daughters.
+
+Le Duc had not waited for me to tell him to find some pretext for
+not serving me.  He knew my tastes, and that when there were
+pretty girls in a house, the less I saw of him the better I was
+pleased.
+
+The frank eagerness of the two girls to wait on me, their utter
+freedom from suspicion or coquetry, made me determine that I would
+shew myself deserving of their trust.  They took off my shoes and
+stockings, did my hair and put on my night-gown with perfect
+propriety on both sides.  When I was in bed I wished them a
+goodnight, and told them to shut the door and bring me my
+chocolate at eight o'clock next morning.
+
+I could not help confessing that I was perfectly happy as I
+reflected over my present condition.  I enjoyed perfect health, I
+was in the prime of life, I had no calls on me, I was thoroughly
+independent, I had a rich store of experience, plenty of money,
+plenty of luck, and I was a favourite with women.  The pains and
+troubles I had gone through had been followed by so many days of
+happiness that I felt disposed to bless my destiny.  Full of these
+agreeable thoughts I fell asleep, and all the night my dreams were
+of happiness and of the pretty brunette who had played with me at
+the concert.
+
+I woke with thoughts of her, and feeling sure that we should
+become acquainted I felt curious to know what success I should
+have with her.  She was discreet and poor; and as I was discreet
+in my own way she ought not to despise my friendship.
+
+At eight o'clock, one of the door-keeper's daughters brought me my
+chocolate, and told me that Le Duc had got the fever.
+
+"You must take care of the poor fellow."
+
+"My cousin has just taken him some broth."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"My name is Rose, and my sister is Manon."
+
+Just then Manon came in with my shirt, on which she had put fresh
+lace.  I thanked her, and she said with a blush that she did her
+father's hair very well.
+
+"I am delighted to hear it, and I shall be very pleased if you
+will be kind enough to do the same offices for me till my servant
+recovers."
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+"And I," said Rose, laughing, "will shave you."
+
+"I should like to see how you do it; get the water."
+
+I rose hastily, while Manon was preparing to do my hair.  Rose
+returned and shaved me admirably.  As soon as she had washed off
+the lather, I said,
+
+"You must give me a kiss," presenting my cheek to her.  She
+pretended not to understand.
+
+"I shall be vexed," said I, gravely but pleasantly, "if you refuse
+to kiss me,"
+
+She begged to be excused, saying with a little smile, that it was
+not customary to do so at Grenoble.
+
+"Well, if you won't kiss me, you shan't shave me."
+
+The father came in at that point, bringing his bill.
+
+"Your daughter has just shaved me admirably," said I, "and she
+refuses to kiss me, because it is not the custom at Grenoble."
+
+"You little silly," said he, "it is the custom in Paris.  You kiss
+me fast enough after you have shaved me, why should you be less
+polite to this gentleman?"
+
+She then kissed me with an air of submission to the paternal
+decree which made Manon laugh.
+
+"Ah!" said the father, "your turn will come when you have finished
+doing the gentleman's hair."
+
+He was a cunning fellow, who knew the best way to prevent me
+cheapening him, but there was no need, as I thought his charges
+reasonable, and as I paid him in full he went off in great glee.
+
+Manon did my hair as well as my dear Dubois, and kissed me when
+she had done without making as many difficulties as Rose.  I
+thought I should get on well with both of them.  They went
+downstairs when the banker was announced.
+
+He was quite a young man, and after he had counted me out four
+hundred Louis, he observed that I must be very comfortable.
+
+"Certainly," said I, "the two sisters are delightful."
+
+"Their cousin is better.  They are too discreet."
+
+"I suppose they are well off."
+
+"The father has two thousand francs a year.  They will be able to
+marry well-to-do tradesmen."
+
+I was curious to see the cousin who was said to be prettier than
+the sisters, and as soon as the banker had gone I went downstairs
+to satisfy my curiosity.  I met the father and asked him which was
+Le Duc's room, and thereon I went to see my fine fellow.  I found
+him sitting up in a comfortable bed with a rubicund face which did
+not look as if he were dangerously ill.
+
+"What is the matter with you?
+
+"Nothing, sir.  I am having a fine time of it.  Yesterday I
+thought I would be ill."
+
+"What made you think that?"
+
+"The sight of the three Graces here, who are made of better stuff
+than your handsome housekeeper, who would not let me kiss her.
+They are making me wait too long for my broth, however.  I shall
+have to speak severely about it."
+
+"Le Duc, you are a rascal."
+
+"Do you want me to get well?"
+
+"I want you to put a stop to this farce, as I don't like it."
+Just then the door opened, and the cousin came in with the broth.
+I thought her ravishing, and I noticed that in waiting on Le Duc
+she had an imperious little air which well became her.
+
+"I shall dine in bed," said my Spaniard.
+
+"You shall be attended to," said the pretty girl, and she went
+out.
+
+"She puts on big airs," said Le Duc, "but that does not impose on
+me.  Don't you think she is very pretty?"
+
+"I think you are very impudent.  You ape your betters, and I don't
+approve of it.  Get up.  You must wait on me at table, and
+afterwards you will eat your dinner by yourself, and try to get
+yourself respected as an honest man always is, whatever his
+condition, so long as he does not forget himself.  You must not
+stay any longer in this room, the doorkeeper will give you
+another."
+
+I went out, and on meeting the fair cousin I told her that I was
+jealous of the honour which she had done my man, and that I begged
+her to wait on him no longer.
+
+"Oh, I am very glad!"
+
+The door-keeper came up, and I gave him my orders, and went back
+to my room to write.
+
+Before dinner the baron came and told me that he had just come
+from the lady to whom he had introduced me.  She was the wife of a
+barrister named Morin, and aunt to the young lady who had so
+interested me.
+
+"I have been talking of you," said the baron, "and of the
+impression her niece made on you.  She promised to send for her,
+and to keep her at the house all day."
+
+After a dinner as good as the supper of the night before, though
+different from it in its details, and appetising enough to awaken
+the dead, we went to see Madame Morin, who received us with the
+easy grace of a Parisian lady.  She introduced me to seven
+children, of whom she was the mother.  Her eldest daughter, an
+ordinary-looking girl, was twelve years old, but I should have
+taken her to be fourteen, and said so.  To convince me of her age
+the mother brought a book in which the year, the month, the day,
+the hour, and even the minute of her birth were entered.  I was
+astonished at such minute accuracy, and asked if she had had a
+horoscope drawn.
+
+"No," said she, "I have never found anybody to do it."
+
+"It is never too late," I replied, "and without doubt God has
+willed that this pleasure should be reserved for me."
+
+At this moment M. Morin came in, his wife introduced me, and after
+the customary compliments had passed, she returned to the subject
+of the horoscope.  The barrister sensibly observed that if
+judicial astrology was not wholly false, it was, nevertheless, a
+suspected science; that he had been so foolish as once to devote a
+considerable portion of his time to it, but that on recognizing
+the inability of man to deal with the future he had abandoned
+astrology, contenting himself with the veritable truths of
+astronomy.  I saw with pleasure that I had to deal with a man of
+sense and education, but Valenglard, who was a believer in
+astrology, began an argument with him on the subject.  During
+their discussion I quietly copied out on my tablets the date of
+Mdlle. Morin's birth.  But M. Morin saw what I was about, and
+shook his head at me, with a smile.  I understood what he meant,
+but I did not allow that to disconcert me, as I had made up my
+mind fully five minutes ago that I would play the astrologer on
+this occasion.
+
+At last the fair niece arrived.  Her aunt introduced me to her as
+Mdlle. Roman Coupier, her sister's daughter; and then, turning to
+her, she informed her how ardently I had been longing to know her
+since I had seen her at the concert.
+
+She was then seventeen.  Her satin skin by its dazzling whiteness
+displayed to greater advantage her magnificent black hair.  Her
+features were perfectly regular, and her complexion had a slight
+tinge of red; her fine eyes were at once sweet and sparkling, her
+eyebrows were well arched, her mouth small, her teeth regular and
+as white as pearls, and her lips, of an exquisite rosy hue,
+afforded a seat to the deities of grace and modesty.
+
+After some moments' conversation, M. Morin was obliged to go out
+on business, and a game of quadrille was proposed, at which I was
+greatly pitied for having lost a louis.  I thought Mdlle. Roman
+discreet, judicious, pleasant without being brilliant, and, still
+better, without any pretensions.  She was high-spirited,
+even-tempered, and had a natural art which did not allow her to
+seem to understand too flattering a compliment, or a joke which
+passed in any way the bounds of propriety.  She was neatly
+dressed, but had no ornaments, and nothing which shewed wealth;
+neither ear-rings, rings, nor a watch.  One might have said that
+her beauty was her only adornment, the only ornament she wore
+being a small gold cross hanging from her necklace of black
+ribbon.  Her breast was well shaped and not too large.  Fashion
+and custom made her shew half of it as innocently as she shewed
+her plump white hand, or her cheeks, whereon the lily and the rose
+were wedded.  I looked at her features to see if I might hope at
+all; but I was completely puzzled, and could come to no
+conclusion.  She gave no sign which made me hope, but on the other
+hand she did nothing to make me despair.  She was so natural and
+so reserved that my sagacity was completely at fault.
+Nevertheless, a liberty which I took at supper gave me a gleam of
+hope.  Her napkin fell down, and in returning it to her I pressed
+her thigh amorously, and could not detect the slightest
+displeasure on her features.  Content with so much I begged
+everybody to come to dinner with me next day, telling Madame Morin
+that I should not be going out, and that I was therefore delighted
+to put my carriage at her service.
+
+When I had taken Valenglard home, I went to my lodging building
+castles in Spain as to the conquest of Mdlle. Roman.
+
+I warned my landlord that we should be six at dinner and supper
+the following day, and then I went to bed.  As Le Duc was
+undressing me he said,
+
+"Sir, you are punishing me, but what makes me sorry you are
+punishing yourself in depriving yourself of the services of those
+pretty girls."
+
+"You are a rogue."
+
+"I know it, but I serve you with all my heart, and I love your
+pleasure as well as my own."
+
+"You plead well for yourself; I am afraid I have spoilt you."
+
+"Shall I do your hair to-morrow?"
+
+"No; you may go out every day till dinner-time."
+
+"I shall be certain to catch it."
+
+"Then I shall send you to the hospital."
+
+"That is a fine prospect, 'por Dios'."
+
+He was impudent, sly, profligate, and a rascally fellow; but also
+obedient, devoted, discreet, and faithful, and his good qualities
+made me overlook his defects.
+
+Next morning, when Rose brought my chocolate, she told me with a
+laugh that my man had sent for a carriage, and after dressing
+himself in the height of fashion he had gone off with his sword at
+his side, to pay calls, as he said.
+
+"We laughed at him."
+
+"You were quite right, my dear Rose."
+
+As I spoke, Manon came in under some pretext or other.  I saw that
+the two sisters had an understanding never to be alone with me; I
+was displeased, but pretended not to notice anything.  I got up,
+and I had scarcely put on my dressing-gown when the cousin came in
+with a packet under her arm.
+
+"I am delighted to see you, and above all to look at your smiling
+face, for I thought you much too serious yesterday."
+
+"That's because M. le Duc is a greater gentleman than you are; I
+should not have presumed to laugh in his presence; but I had my
+reward in seeing him start off this morning in his gilded coach."
+
+"Did he see you laughing at him?"
+
+"Yes, unless he is blind."
+
+"He will be vexed."
+
+"All the better."
+
+"You are really very charming.  What have you got in that parcel?"
+
+"Some goods of our own manufacture.  Look; they are embroidered
+gloves."
+
+"They are beautiful; the embroidery is exquisitely done.  How much
+for the lot?"
+
+"Are you a good hand at a bargain."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then we must take that into account."
+
+After some whisperings together the cousin took a pen, put down
+the numbers of gloves, added up and said,
+
+"The lot will cost you two hundred and ten francs."
+
+"There are nine louis; give me six francs change."
+
+"But you told us you would make a bargain."
+
+"You were wrong to believe it."
+
+She blushed and gave me the six francs.  Rose and Manon shaved me
+and did my hair, giving me a kiss with the best grace imaginable;
+and when I offered my cheek to the cousin she kissed me on the
+mouth in a manner that told me she would be wholly mine on the
+first opportunity.
+
+"Shall we have the pleasure of waiting on you at the table?" said
+Rose.
+
+"I wish you would."
+
+"But we should like to know who is coming to dinner first; as if
+it is officers from the garrison we dare not come; they make so
+free."
+
+"My guests are Madame Morin, her husband, and her niece."
+
+"Very good"
+
+The cousin said,
+
+"Mdlle. Roman is the prettiest and the best girl in Grenoble; but
+she will find some difficulty in marrying as she has no money."
+
+"She may meet some rich man who will think her goodness and her
+beauty worth a million of money."
+
+"There are not many men of that kind."
+
+"No; but there are a few."
+
+Manon and the cousin went out, and I was left alone with Rose, who
+stayed to dress me.  I attacked her, but she defended herself so
+resolutely that I desisted, and promised it should not occur
+again.  When she had finished I gave her a louis, thanked her, and
+sent her away.
+
+As soon as I was alone I locked the door, and proceeded to concoct
+the horoscope I had promised to Madame Morin.  I found it an easy
+task to fill eight pages with learned folly; and I confined myself
+chiefly to declaring the events which had already happened to the
+native.  I had deftly extracted some items of information in the
+course of conversation, and filling up the rest according to the
+laws of probability and dressing up the whole in astrological
+diction, I was pronounced to be a seer, and no doubts were cast on
+my skill.  I did not indeed run much risk, for everything hung
+from an if, and in the judicious employment of ifs lies the secret
+of all astrology.
+
+I carefully re-read the document, and thought it admirable.  I
+felt in the vein, and the use of the cabala had made me an expert
+in this sort of thing.
+
+Just after noon all my guests arrived, and at one we sat down to
+table.  I have never seen a more sumptuous or more delicate
+repast.  I saw that the cook was an artist more in need of
+restraint than encouragement.  Madame Morin was very polite to the
+three girls, whom she knew well, and Le Duc stood behind her chair
+all the time, looking after her wants, and dressed as richly as
+the king's chamberlain.  When we had nearly finished dinner Mdlle.
+Roman passed a compliment on my three fair waiting-maids, and this
+giving me occasion to speak of their talents I got up and brought
+the gloves I had purchased from them.  Mdlle. Roman praised the
+quality of the material and the work.  I took the opportunity, and
+begged leave of the aunt to give her and her niece a dozen pair
+apiece.  I obtained this favour, and I then gave Madame Morin the
+horoscope.  Her husband read it, and though an unbeliever he was
+forced to admire, as all the deductions were taken naturally from
+the position of the heavenly bodies at the instant of his
+daughter's birth.  We spent a couple of hours in talking about
+astrology, and the same time in playing at quadrille, and then we
+took a walk in the garden, where I was politely left to enjoy the
+society of the fair Roman.
+
+Our dialogue, or rather my monologue, turned solely on the
+profound impression she had made on me, on the passion she had
+inspired, on her beauty, her goodness, the purity of my
+intentions, and on my need of love, lest I should go down to the
+grave the most hapless of men.
+
+"Sir," said she, at last, "if my destiny points to marriage I do
+not deny that I should be happy to find a husband like you."
+
+I was emboldened by this frank declaration, and seizing her hand I
+covered it with fiery kisses, saying passionately that I hoped she
+would not let me languish long.  She turned her head to look for
+her aunt.  It was getting dark, and she seemed to be afraid of
+something happening to her.  She drew me gently with her, and on
+rejoining the other guests we returned to the dining-room, where I
+made a small bank at faro for their amusement.  Madame Morin gave
+her daughter and niece, whose pockets were empty, some money, and
+Valenglard directed their play so well that when we left off to go
+to supper I had the pleasure of seeing that each of the three
+ladies had won two or three louis.
+
+We sat at table till midnight.  A cold wind from the Alps stopped
+my plan of proposing a short turn in the garden.  Madame Morin
+overwhelmed me with thanks for my entertainment, and I gave each
+of my lady-visitors a respectful kiss.
+
+I heard singing in the kitchen, and on going in I found Le Duc in
+a high state of excitement and very drunk.  As soon as he saw me
+he tried to rise, but he lost his centre of gravity, and fell
+right under the kitchen table.  He was carried away to bed.
+
+I thought this accident favourable to my desire of amusing myself,
+and I might have succeeded if the three Graces had not all been
+there.  Love only laughs when two are present, and thus it is that
+the ancient mythology tells no story of the loves of the Graces,
+who were always together.  I had not yet found an opportunity of
+getting my three maids one after the other, and I dared not risk a
+general attack, which might have lost me the confidence of each
+one.  Rose, I saw, was openly jealous of her cousin, as she kept a
+keen look-out after her movements.  I was not sorry, for jealousy
+leads to anger, and anger goes a long way.  When I was in bed I
+sent them away with a modest good night.
+
+Next morning, Rose came in by herself to ask me for a cake of
+chocolate, for, as she said, Le Duc was now ill in real earnest.
+She brought me the box, and I gave her the chocolate, and in doing
+so I took her hand and shewed her how well I loved her.  She was
+offended, drew back her hand sharply, and left the room.  A moment
+after Manon came in under the pretext of shewing me a piece of
+lace I had torn away in my attempts of the day before, and of
+asking me if she should mend it.  I took her hand to kiss it, but
+she did not give me time, presenting her lips, burning with
+desire.  I took her hand again, and it was just on the spot when
+the cousin came in.  Manon held the piece of lace, and seemed to
+be waiting for my answer.  I told her absently that I should be
+obliged if she would mend it when she had time, and with this she
+went out.
+
+I was troubled by this succession of disasters, and thought that
+the cousin would not play me false from the earnest of her
+affection which she had given me the day before in that ardent
+kiss of hers.  I begged her to give me my handkerchief, and gently
+drew her hand towards me.  Her mouth fastened to mine, and her
+hand, which she left to my pleasure with all the gentleness of a
+lamb, was already in motion when Rose came in with my chocolate.
+We regained our composure in a moment, but I was furious at heart.
+I scowled at Rose, and I had a right to do so after the manner in
+which she had repulsed me a quarter of an hour before.  Though the
+chocolate was excellent, I pronounced it badly made.  I chid her
+for her awkwardness in waiting on me, and repulsed her at every
+step.  When I got up I would not let her shave me; I shaved
+myself, which seemed to humiliate her, and then Manon did my hair.
+Rose and the cousin then went out, as if to make common cause
+together, but it was easy to see that Rose was less angry with her
+sister than her cousin.
+
+As Manon was finishing my toilette, M. de Valenglard came in.  As
+soon as we were alone, the officer, who was a man of honour and of
+much sense, in spite of his belief in astrology and the occult
+sciences, said that he thought me looking rather melancholy, and
+that if my sadness had any connection with the fair Roman, he
+warned me to think no more of her, unless I had resolved to ask
+her hand in marriage.  I replied that to put an end to all
+difficulties I had decided on leaving Grenoble in a few days.  We
+dined together and we then called on Madame Morin, with whom we
+found her fair niece.
+
+Madame Morin gave me a flattering welcome, and Mdlle. Roman
+received me so graciously that I was emboldened to kiss her and
+place her on my knee.  The aunt laughed, the niece blushed, and
+then slipping into my hand a little piece of paper made her
+escape.  I read on the paper the year, day, Hour, and minute of
+her birth, and guessed what she meant.  She meant, I thought, that
+I could do nothing with her before I had drawn up her horoscope.
+My resolve was soon taken to profit by this circumstance, and I
+told her that I would tell her whether I could oblige her or not
+next day, if she would come to a ball I was giving.  She looked at
+her aunt and my invitation was accepted.
+
+Just then the servant announced "The Russian Gentleman."  I saw a
+well-made man of about my own age, slightly marked with the
+small-pox, and dressed as a traveller.  He accosted Madame Morin
+with easy grace, was welcomed heartily by her, spoke well,
+scarcely gave me a glance, and did not say a word to the nieces.
+In the evening M. Morin came in, and the Russian gave him a small
+phial full of a white liquid, and then made as if he would go,
+but he was kept to supper.
+
+At table the conversation ran on this marvellous liquid of his.
+M. Morin told me that he had cured a young man of a bruise from a
+billiard ball in five minutes, by only rubbing it with the liquid.
+He said modestly that it was a trifling thing of his own
+invention, and he talked a good deal about chemistry to
+Valenglard.  As my attention was taken up by the fair Mdlle.
+Roman I could not take part in their conversation; my hope of
+succeeding with her on the following day absorbed all my thoughts.
+As I was going away with Valenglard he told me that nobody knew
+who the Russian was, and that he was nevertheless received
+everywhere.
+
+"Has he a carriage and servants?"
+
+"He has nothing, no servants and no money."
+
+"Where did he come from?"
+
+"From the skies."
+
+"A fair abode, certainly; how long has he been here?"
+
+"For the last fortnight.  He visits, but asks for nothing."
+
+"How does he live?"
+
+"On credit at the inn; he is supposed to be waiting for his
+carriage and servants."
+
+"He is probably a vagabond."
+
+"He does not look like one, as you saw for yourself, and his
+diamonds contradict that hypothesis."
+
+"Yes, if they are not imitation stones, for it seems to me that if
+they were real he would sell them."
+
+When I got home Rose came by herself to attend on me, but she
+continued to sulk.  I tried to rouse her up, but as I had no
+success I ordered her to go and tell her father that I was going
+to give a ball next day in the room by the garden, and that supper
+was to be laid for twenty.
+
+When the door-keeper came to take my orders the following morning,
+I told him that I should like his girls to dance if he didn't
+mind.  At this Rose condescended to smile, and I thought it a good
+omen.  Just as she went out with her father, Manon carne in under
+the pretext of asking me what lace I would wear for the day.  I
+found her as gentle as a lamb and as loving as a dove.  The affair
+was happily consummated, but we had a narrow escape of being
+caught by Rose, who came in with Le Duc and begged me to let him
+dance, promising that he would behave himself properly.  I was
+glad that everybody should enjoy themselves and consented, telling
+him to thank Rose, who had got him this favour.
+
+I had a note from Madame Morin, asking me if she might bring with
+her to the ball two ladies of her acquaintance and their
+daughters.  I replied that I should be delighted for her to invite
+not only as many ladies but as many gentlemen as she pleased, as I
+had ordered supper for twenty people.  She came to dinner with her
+niece and Valenglard, her daughter being busy dressing and her
+husband being engaged till the evening.  She assured me that I
+should have plenty of guests.
+
+The fair Mdlle. Roman wore the same dress, but her beauty
+unadorned was dazzling.  Standing by me she asked if I had thought
+about her horoscope.  I took her hand, made her sit on my knee,
+and promised that she should have it on the morrow.  I held her
+thus, pressing her charming breasts with my left hand, and
+imprinting fiery kisses on her lips, which she only opened to beg
+me to calm myself.  She was more astonished than afraid to see me
+trembling, and though she defended herself successfully she did
+not lose countenance for a moment, and in spite of my ardent gaze
+she did not turn her face away.  I calmed myself with an effort,
+and her eyes expressed the satisfaction of one who has vanquished
+a generous enemy by the force of reason.  By my silence I praised
+the virtue of this celestial being, in whose destiny I only had a
+part by one of those caprices of chance which philosophy seeks to
+explain in vain.
+
+Madame Morin came up to me, and asked me to explain some points in
+her daughter's horoscope.  She then told me that if I wanted to
+have four beauties at my ball she had only to write a couple of
+notes.
+
+"I shall only see one beauty," said I, looking at her niece.  "God
+alone knows," said Valenglard, "what people will say in Grenoble!"
+"They will say it is your wedding ball," said Madame Morin to her
+niece.
+
+"Yes, and they will doubtless talk of my magnificent dress, my
+lace, and my diamonds," said the niece, pleasantly.
+
+"They will talk of your beauty, your wit, and your goodness,"
+I replied, passionately, "goodness which will make your husband a
+happy man."
+
+There was a silence, because they all thought I was alluding to
+myself.  I was doing nothing of the sort.  I should have been glad
+to give five hundred louis for her, but I did not see how the
+contract was to be drawn up, and I was not going to throw my money
+away.
+
+We went to my bedroom, and while Mdlle. Roman was amusing herself
+with looking at the jewellry on my toilette-table, her aunt and
+Valenglard examined the books on the table by my bedside.  I saw
+Madame Morin going to the window and looking closely at something
+she held in her hand.  I remembered I had left out the portrait of
+the fair nun.  I ran to her and begged her to give me the indecent
+picture I had so foolishly left about.
+
+"I don't mind the indecency of it," she said, "but what strikes me
+is the exact likeness."
+
+I understood everything, and I shuddered at the carelessness of
+which I had been guilty.
+
+"Madam," I said, "that is the portrait of a Venetian, lady, of
+whom I was very found."
+
+"I daresay, but it's very curious.  These two M's, these cast-off
+robes sacrificed to love, everything makes my surprise greater."
+
+"She is a nun and named M---- M----."
+
+"And a Welsh niece of mine at Camberi is also named M---- M----,
+and belongs to the same order.  Nay, more, she has been at Aix,
+whence you have come, to get cured of an illness."
+
+"And this portrait is like her?"
+
+"As one drop of water is like another."
+
+"If you go to Chamberi call on her and say you come from me; you
+will be welcome and you will be as much surprised as I am."
+
+"I will do so, after I have been in Italy.  However, I will not
+shew her this portrait, which would scandalize her; I will put it
+away carefully."
+
+"I beg you not to shew it to anyone."
+
+"You may rely on me."
+
+I was in an ecstasy at having put her off so effectually.
+
+At eight o'clock all my guests arrived, and I saw before me all
+the fairest ladies and the noblest gentlemen of Grenoble.  The
+only thing which vexed me was the compliments they lavished on me,
+as is customary in the provinces.
+
+I opened the ball with the lady pointed out to me by
+M. Valenglard, and then I danced with all the ladies in succession;
+but my partner in all the square dances was the fair Mdlle. Roman,
+who shone from her simplicity--at least, in my eyes.
+
+After a quadrille, in which I had exerted myself a good deal, I
+felt hot and went up to my room to put on a lighter suit, and as I
+was doing so, in came the fair cousin, who asked me if I required
+anything.
+
+"Yes, you, dearest," I replied, going up to her and taking her in
+my arms.  "Did anyone see you coming in here?"
+
+"No, I came from upstairs, and my cousins are in the
+dancing-room."
+
+"That is capital.  You are fair as Love himself, and this is an
+excellent opportunity for skewing you how much I love you."
+
+"Good heavens!  What are you doing?  Let me go, somebody might
+come in.  Well, put out the light!"
+
+I put it out, shut the door, and, my head full of Mdlle. Roman,
+the cousin found me as ardent as I should have been with that
+delightful person.  I confess, too, that the door-keeper's niece
+was well worthy of being loved on her own merits.  I found her
+perfect, perhaps better than Mdlle. Roman, a novice, would have
+been.  In spite of my ardour her passion was soon appeased, and
+she begged me to let her go, and I did so; but it was quite time.
+I wanted to begin over again, but she was afraid that our absence
+would be noticed by her two Argus-eyed cousins, so she kissed me
+and left the room.
+
+I went back to the ball-room, and we danced on till the king of
+door-keepers came to tell us supper was ready.
+
+A collation composed of the luxuries which the season and the
+country afforded covered the table; but what pleased the ladies
+most was the number and artistic arrangement of the wax lights.
+
+I sat down at a small table with a few of my guests, and I
+received the most pressing invitations to spend the autumn in
+their town.  I am sure that if I had accepted I should have been
+treated like a prince, for the nobility of Grenoble bear the
+highest character for hospitality.  I told them that if it had
+been possible I should have had the greatest pleasure in accepting
+their invitation, and in that case I should have been delighted to
+have made the acquaintance of the family of an illustrious
+gentleman, a friend of my father's.
+
+"What name is it?" they asked me, altogether.
+
+"Bouchenu de Valbonnais."
+
+"He was my uncle.  Ah!  sir, you must come and stay with us.  You
+danced with my daughter.  What was your father's name?"
+
+This story, which I invented, and uttered as I was wont, on the
+spur of the moment, turned me into a sort of wonder in the eyes of
+the worthy people.
+
+After we had laughed, jested, drank, and eaten, we rose from the
+table and began to dance anew.
+
+Seeing Madame Morin, her niece, and Valenglard going into the
+garden, I followed them, and as we walked in the moonlight I led
+the fair Mdlle. Roman through a covered alley; but all my fine
+speeches were in vain; I could do nothing.  I held her between my
+arms, I covered her with burning kisses, but not one did she
+return to me, and her hands offered a successful resistance to my
+hardy attempts.  By a sudden effort, however, I at last attained
+the porch of the temple of love, and held her in such a way that
+further resistance would have been of no avail; but she stopped me
+short by saying in a voice which no man of feeling could have
+resisted,--
+
+"Be my friend, sir, and not my enemy and the cause of my ruin."
+
+I knelt before her, and taking her hand begged her pardon,
+swearing not to renew my attempts.  I then rose and asked her to
+kiss me as a pledge of her forgiveness.  We rejoined her aunt, and
+returned to the ball-room, but with all my endeavours I could not
+regain my calm.
+
+I sat down in a corner of the room, and I asked Rose, who passed
+by me, to get me a glass of lemonade.  When she brought it she
+gently chid me for not having danced with her, her sister, or her
+cousin.
+
+"It will give people but a poor opinion of our merits."
+
+"I am tired," said I, "but if you will promise to be kind I will
+dance a minuet with you."
+
+"What do want me to do?" said she.
+
+"Go into my bedroom and wait for me there in the dark when you see
+your sister and your cousin busy dancing."
+
+"And you will only dance with me."
+
+"I swear"
+
+"Then you will find me in your room."
+
+I found her passionate, and I had full satisfaction.  To keep my
+word with her I waited for the closing minuet, for having danced
+with Rose I felt obliged in common decency to dance with the other
+two, especially as I owed them the same debt.
+
+At day-break the ladies began to vanish, and as I put the Morins
+into my carriage I told them that I could not have the pleasure of
+seeing them again that day, but that if they would come and spend
+the whole of the day after with me I would have the horoscope
+ready.
+
+I went to the kitchen to thank the worthy door-keeper for having
+made me cut such a gallant figure, and I found the three nymphs
+there, filling their pockets with sweetmeats.  He told them,
+laughing, that as the master was there they might rob him with a
+clear conscience, and I bade them take as much as they would.  I
+informed the door-keeper that I should not dine till six, and I
+then went to bed.
+
+I awoke at noon, and feeling myself well rested I set to work at
+the horoscope, and I resolved to tell the fair Mdlle. Roman that
+fortune awaited her at Paris, where she would become her master's
+mistress, but that the monarch must see her before she had
+attained her eighteenth year, as at that time her destiny would
+take a different turn.  To give my prophecy authority, I told her
+some curious circumstances which had hitherto happened to her, and
+which I had learnt now and again from herself or Madame Morin
+without pretending to heed what they said.
+
+With an Ephemeris and another astrological book, I made out and
+copied in six hours Mdlle. Roman's horoscope, and I had so well
+arranged it that it struck Valenglard and even M. Morin with
+astonishment, and made the two ladies quite enthusiastic.
+
+My horoscope must only be known to the young lady and her family,
+who would no doubt keep the secret well.  After I had put the
+finishing touches to it, read it, and read it again, I felt
+certain that I had made a masterpiece, and I then dined in bed
+with my three nymphs.  I was polite and affectionate to them all,
+and we were all happy together, but I was the happiest.  M. de
+Valenglard came to see me early the next day, and informed me that
+nobody suspected me of being in love with Mdlle. Roman, but that I
+was thought to be amorous of my landlord's girls.
+
+"Well, let them think so," said I; "they are worthy of love,
+though not to be named in the same breath with one past compare,
+but who leaves me no hope."
+
+"Let me tell Madame d'Urfe all about it."
+
+"Certainly; I shall be delighted."
+
+M. and Madame Morin and their niece came at noon, and we spent the
+hour before dinner in reading the horoscope.  It would be
+impossible to describe the four distinct sorts of surprise which I
+saw before me.  The interesting Mdlle. Roman looked very grave,
+and, not knowing whether she had a will of her own, listened to
+what was said in silence.  M. Morin looked at me now and again,
+and seeing that I kept a serious countenance did not dare to
+laugh.  Valenglard shewed fanatic belief in astrology in every
+feature.  Madame Morin seemed struck as by a miracle, and, far
+from thinking the fact prophesied too improbable, remarked that
+her niece was much more worthy of becoming her sovereign's wife or
+mistress than the bigoted Maintenon had been.
+
+"She would never have done anything," said Madame Morin, "if she
+had not left America and come to France; and if my niece does not
+go to Paris nobody can say that the horoscope has prophesied
+falsely.  We should therefore--go to Paris, but how is it to be
+done?  I don't see my way to it.  The prediction of the birth of a
+son has something divine and entrancing about it.  I don't wish to
+seem prejudiced, but my niece has certainly more qualifications
+for gaining the king's affection than the Maintenon had: my niece
+is a good girl and young, while the Maintenon was no longer as
+young as she had been, and had led a strange life before she
+became a devotee.  But we shall never accomplish this journey to
+Paris."
+
+"Nay," said Valenglard, in a serious tone, which struck me as
+supremely ridiculous, "she must go; her fate must be fulfilled."
+
+The fair Mdlle. Roman seemed all amazed.  I let them talk on, and
+we sat down to dinner.
+
+[The next two paragraphs were misplaced in the original,
+likely by the typesetter, and have been inserted here where it
+seems that they belong.  D.W.]
+
+I hoped I should be asked to take the diamond to Paris myself, and
+I felt inclined to grant the request.  I flattered myself that
+they could not do without me, and that I should get what I wanted,
+if not for love at any rate through gratitude; indeed, who knew
+what might become of the plan?  The monarch would be sure to be
+caught directly.  I had no doubts on that subject, for where is
+the man in love who does not think that his beloved object will
+win the hearts of all others?  For the moment I felt quite jealous
+of the king, but, from my thorough knowledge of my own
+inconstancy, I felt sure that my jealousy would cease when my love
+had been rewarded, and I was aware that Louis XV. did not
+altogether hold the opinions of a Turk in such concerns.  What
+gave an almost divine character to the horoscope was the
+prediction of a son to be born, who would make the happiness of
+France, and could only come from the royal blood and from a
+singular vessel of election.
+
+A curious fancy increased my delight, namely, the thought of
+becoming a famous astrologer in an age when reason and science had
+so justly demolished astrology.  I enjoyed the thought of seeing
+myself sought out by crowned heads, which are always the more
+accessible to superstitious notions.  I determined I would be
+particular to whom I gave my advice.  Who has not made his castles
+in Spain?  If Mdlle.  Roman gave birth to a daughter instead of a
+son I should be amused, and all would not be lost, for a son might
+come afterwards.
+
+At first silence reigned, and then the conversation ran on a
+thousand trifles, as is usual in good society, but by degrees, as
+I had thought, they returned to the horoscope.
+
+"According to the horoscope," said the aunt, "the king is to fall
+in love with my niece in her eighteenth year; she is now close on
+it.  What are we to do?  Where are we to get the hundred louis
+necessary?  And when she gets to Paris is she to go to the king
+and say, 'Here I am, your majesty'?  And who is going to take her
+there?  I can't."
+
+"My aunt Roman might," said the young lady, blushing up to her
+eyes at the roar of laughter which none of us could restrain.
+
+"Well," said Madame Morin, "there is Madame Varnier, of the Rue de
+Richelieu; she is an aunt of yours.  She has a good establishment,
+and knows everybody."
+
+"See," said Valenglard, "how the ways of destiny are made plain.
+You talk of a hundred louis; twelve will be sufficient to take you
+to Madame Varnier's.  When you get there, leave the rest to your
+fate, which will surely favour you."
+
+"If you do go to Paris," said I, "say nothing to Madame Roman or
+Madame Varnier about the horoscope."
+
+"I will say nothing to anyone about it; but, after all, it is only
+a happy dream.  I shall never see Paris, still less Louis XV."
+
+I arose, and going to my cash-box I took out a roll of a hundred
+and fifty louis, which I gave to her, saying it was a packet of
+sweetmeats.  It felt rather heavy, and on opening it she found it
+to contain fifty pieces-of-eight, which she took for medals.
+
+"They are gold," said Valenglard.
+
+"And the goldsmith will give you a hundred and fifty louis for
+them," added M. Morin.
+
+"I beg you will keep them; you can give me a bill payable at Paris
+when you become rich."
+
+I knew she would refuse to accept my present, although I should
+have been delighted if she had kept the money.  But I admired her
+strength of mind in restraining her tears, and that without
+disturbing for a moment the smile on her face.
+
+We went out to take a turn in the garden.  Valenglard and Madame
+Morin began on the topic of the horoscope anew, and I left them,
+taking Mdlle. Roman with me.
+
+"I wish you would tell me," said she, when we were out of hearing
+of the others, "if this horoscope is not all a joke."
+
+"No," I answered, "it is quite serious, but it all depends on an
+if.  If you do not go to Paris the prophecy will never be
+fulfilled."
+
+"You must think so, certainly, or you would never have offered me
+those fifty medals."
+
+"Do me the pleasure of accepting them now; nobody will know
+anything about it."
+
+"No, I cannot, though I am much obliged to you.  But why should
+you want to give me such a large sum?"
+
+"For the pleasure of contributing to your happiness, and in the
+hope that you will allow me to love you."
+
+"If you really love met why should I oppose your love?  You need
+not buy my consent; and to be happy I do not want to possess the
+King of France, if you did but know to what my desires are
+limited."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"I would fain find a kind husband, rich enough for us not to lack
+the necessaries of life."
+
+"But how if you did not love him?"
+
+"If he was a good, kind man how could I help loving him?"
+
+"I see that you do not know what love is."
+
+"You are right.  I do not know the love that maddens, and I thank
+God for it."
+
+"Well, I think you are wise; may God preserve you from that love."
+
+"You say, that as soon as the king sees me he will fall in love
+with me, and to tell you the truth that strikes me as vastly
+improbable; for though it is quite possible that he may not think
+me plain, or he might even pronounce me pretty, yet I do not think
+he will become so madly in love as you say."
+
+"You don't?  Let us sit down.  You have only got to fancy that the
+king will take the same liking to you that I have done; that is
+all."
+
+"But what do you find in me that you will not find in most girls
+of my age?  I certainly may have struck you; but that only proves
+that I was born to exercise this sway over you, and not at all
+that I am to rule the king in like manner.  Why should I go and
+look for the king, if you love me yourself?"
+
+"Because I cannot give you the position you deserve."
+
+"I should have thought you had plenty of money."
+
+"Then there's another reason: you are not in love with me."
+
+"I love you as tenderly as if I were your wife.  I might then kiss
+you, though duty now forbids my doing so."
+
+"I am much obliged to you for not being angry with me for being so
+happy with you!"
+
+"On the contrary, I am delighted to please you."
+
+"Then you will allow me to call on you at an early hour to-morrow,
+and to take coffee at your bedside."
+
+"Do not dream of such a thing.  If I would I could not.  I sleep
+with my aunt, and I always rise at the same time she does.  Take
+away your hand; you promised not to do it again.  In God's name,
+let me alone."
+
+Alas! I had to stop; there was no overcoming her.  But what
+pleased me extremely was that in spite of my amorous persecution
+she did not lose that smiling calm which so became her.  As for
+myself I looked as if I deserved that pardon for which I pleaded
+on my knees, and in her eyes I read that she was sorry that she
+could not grant what I required of her.
+
+I could no longer stay beside her, my senses were too excited by
+her beauty.  I left her and went to my room where I found the kind
+Manon busying herself on my cuffs, and she gave me the relief I
+wanted, and when we were both satisfied made her escape.  I
+reflected that I should never obtain more than I had obtained
+hitherto from young Mdlle. Roman--at least, unless I gave the lie
+to my horoscope by marrying her, and I decided that I would not
+take any further steps in the matter.  I returned to the garden,
+and going up to the aunt I begged her to walk with me.  In vain I
+urged the worthy woman to accept a hundred louis for her niece's
+journey from me.  I swore to her by all I held sacred that no one
+else should ever know of the circumstance.  All my eloquence and
+all my prayers were in vain.  She told me that if her niece's
+destiny only depended on that journey all would be well, for she
+had thought over a plan which would, with her husband's consent,
+enable Mdlle.  Roman to go to Paris.  At the same time she gave me
+her sincerest thanks, and said that her niece was very fortunate
+to have pleased me so well.
+
+"She pleased me so well," I replied, "that I have resolved to go
+away to-morrow to avoid making proposals to you which would bring
+the great fortune that awaits her to nought.  If it were not for
+that I should have been happy to have asked her hand of you."
+
+"Alas! her happiness would, perhaps, be built on a better
+foundation.  Explain yourself."
+
+"I dare not wage war with fate."
+
+"But you are not going to-morrow?"
+
+"Excuse me, but I shall call to take leave at two o'clock."
+
+The news of my approaching departure saddened the supper-table.
+Madame Morin, who, for all I know, may be alive now, was a most
+kind-hearted woman.  At table she announced her resolve that as I
+had decided on going, and as I should only leave my house to take
+leave of her, she would not force me to put myself out to such an
+extent, and ordained that our farewells should be said that
+evening.
+
+"At least," I said, "I may have the honour of escorting you to
+your door?"
+
+"That will protract our happiness for some minutes."  Valenglard
+went away on foot, and the fair Mdlle. Roman sat on my knee.  I
+dared to be bold with her, and contrary to expectation she shewed
+herself so kind that I was half sorry I was going; but the die was
+cast.
+
+A carriage lying overturned on the road outside an inn made my
+coachman stop a short while, and this accident which made the poor
+driver curse overwhelmed me with joy, for in these few moments I
+obtained all the favours that she could possibly give under the
+circumstances.
+
+Happiness enjoyed alone is never complete.  Mine was not until I
+assured myself, by looking at my sweetheart's features, that the
+part she had taken had not been an entirely passive one; and I
+escorted the ladies to their room.  There, without any conceit, I
+was certain that I saw sadness and love upon that fair creature's
+face.  I could see that she was neither cold nor insensible, and
+that the obstacles she had put in my way were only suggested by
+fear and virtue.  I gave Madame Morin a farewell kiss, and she was
+kind enough to tell her niece to give me a similar mark of
+friendship, which she did in a way that shewed me how completely
+she had shared my ardour.
+
+I left them, feeling amorous and sorry I had obliged myself to go.
+On entering my room I found the three nymphs together, which vexed
+me as I only wanted one.  I whispered my wishes to Rose as she
+curled my hair, but she told me it was impossible for her to slip
+away as they all slept in one room.  I then told them that I was
+going away the next day, and that if they would pass the night
+with me I would give them a present of six louis each.  They
+laughed at my proposal and said it couldn't possibly be done.  I
+saw by this they had not made confidantes of one another, as girls
+mostly do, and I also saw that they were jealous of each other.  I
+wished them a good night, and as soon as I was in bed the god of
+dreams took me under his care, and made me pass the night with the
+adorable Mdlle. Roman.
+
+I rang rather late in the morning, and the cousin came in and said
+that Rose would bring my chocolate, and that M. Charles Ivanoff
+wanted to speak to me.  I guessed that this was the Russian, but
+as he had not been introduced to me I thought I might decline to
+see him.
+
+"Tell him I don't know his name."
+
+Rose went out, and came in again saying he was the gentleman who
+had had the honour of supping with me at Madame Morin's.
+
+"Tell him to come in."
+
+"Sir," said he, "I want to speak with you in private."
+
+"I cannot order these young ladies to leave my room, sir.  Be kind
+enough to wait for me outside till I have put on my dressing-gown,
+and then I shall be ready to speak to you."
+
+"If I am troubling you, I will call again to-morrow."
+
+"You would not find me, as I am leaving Grenoble to-day."
+
+"In that case I will wait."
+
+I got up in haste and went out to him.
+
+"Sir," said he, "I must leave this place, and I have not a penny
+to pay my landlord.  I beg of you to come to my aid.  I dare not
+have recourse to anyone else in the town for fear of exposing
+myself to the insult of a refusal."
+
+"Perhaps I ought to feel myself flattered at the preference you
+have shewn me, but without wishing to insult you in any way I am
+afraid I shall be obliged to refuse your request."
+
+"If you knew who I am I am sure you would not refuse me some small
+help."
+
+"If you think so, tell me who you are; you may count on my
+silence."
+
+"I am Charles, second son of Ivan, Duke of Courland, who is in
+exile in Siberia.  I made my escape."
+
+"If you go to Genoa you will find yourself beyond the reach of
+poverty; for no doubt the brother of your lady-mother would never
+abandon you."
+
+"He died in Silesia."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Two years ago, I believe."
+
+"You have been deceived, for I saw him at Stuttgart scarcely six
+months ago.  He is the Baron de Treiden."
+
+It did not cost me much to get wind of the adventurer, but I felt
+angry that he had had the impudence to try and dupe me.  If it had
+not been for that I would willingly have given him six louis, for
+it would have been bad form on my part to declare war against
+adventurers, as I was one myself, and I ought to have pardoned his
+lies as nearly all adventurers are more or less impostors.
+I gave a glance at his diamond buckles, which were considered real
+at Grenoble, and I saw directly that they were counterfeits of a
+kind made in Venice, which imitate the facets of the diamonds in
+perfection, except to people who are experienced in diamonds.
+
+"You have diamond buckles," said I.  "Why don't you sell them?"
+
+"It's the last piece of jewellery I possess out of all my mother
+gave me, and I promised her never to part with them."
+
+"I would not shew those buckles if I were you; your pocket would
+be a better place for them.  I may tell you frankly that I believe
+the stones to be counterfeit, and that your lie displeases me."
+
+"Sir, I am not a liar."
+
+"We shall see.  Prove that the stones are genuine, and I will give
+you six louis.  I shall be delighted if I am in the wrong.
+Farewell."
+
+Seeing M. de Valerlglard coming up to my door, he begged me not to
+tell him of what had passed between us; and I promised that I
+would tell no one.
+
+Valenglard came to wish me a prosperous journey; he himself was
+obliged to go with M. Monteinard.  He begged me to correspond
+constantly with him, and I had been intending to prefer the same
+request, as I took too great an interest in the fair Mdlle. Roman
+not to wish to hear of her fate, and the correspondence the worthy
+officer desired was the best way possible for me to hear about
+her.  As will be imagined, I promised what he asked without making
+any difficulty.  He shed tears as he embraced me, and I promised
+to be his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+My Departure from Grenoble--Avignon--The Fountain of Vaucluse--The
+False Astrodi and the Humpback--Gaetan Costa--I Arrive at
+Marseilles
+
+While the three girls were helping Le Duc to pack my mails my
+landlord entered, gave me his bill, and finding everything correct
+I paid him, much to his satisfaction.  I owed him a compliment,
+too, at which he seemed extremely gratified.
+
+"Sir," said I, "I do not wish to leave your house without having
+the pleasure of dining with your charming girls, to shew them how
+I appreciate the care they have taken of me.  Let me have, then, a
+delicate repast for four, and also order post horses, that I may
+start in the evening."
+
+"Sir," broke in Le Duc, "I entreat you to order a saddle-horse
+besides; I was not made for a seat behind a chaise."
+
+The cousin laughed openly at his vain boasting, and to avenge
+himself the rascal told her that he was better than she.
+
+"Nevertheless, M. le Duc, you will have to wait on her at table."
+
+"Yes, as she waits on you in bed."
+
+I ran for my stick, but the rogue, knowing what was going to
+happen, opened the window and jumped into the courtyard.  The
+girls gave a shriek of terror, but when we looked out we saw him
+jumping about and performing a thousand apish tricks.
+
+Very glad to find that he had not broken a limb, I called out,
+"Come back, I forgive you."  The girls, and the man himself who
+escaped so readily, were as delighted as I.  Le Duc came in in
+high spirits, observing that he did not know he was such a good
+jumper.
+
+"Very good, but don't be so impudent another time.  Here, take
+this watch."
+
+So saying, I gave him a valuable gold watch, which he received,
+saying,--
+
+"I would jump again for another watch like this."
+
+Such was my Spaniard, whom I had to dismiss two years afterwards.
+I have often missed him.
+
+The hours went by with such speed when I was seated at table with
+the three girls, whom I vainly endeavoured to intoxicate, that I
+decided that I would not leave till the next day.  I was tired of
+making mysteries and wanted to enjoy them all together, and
+resolved that the orgy should take place that night.  I told them
+that if they would pass the night in my room I would not go till
+the next day.  This proposition was received with a storm of
+exclamations and with laughter, as at an impossibility, while I
+endeavoured to excite them to grant my request.  In the midst of
+this the door-keeper came in, advising me not to travel by night,
+but to go to Avignon by a boat in which I could ship my carriage.
+
+"You will save time and money," said he.
+
+"I will do so," I answered, "if these girls of yours will keep me
+company all night, as I am determined I will not go to bed."
+
+"O Lord!" said he with a laugh, "that's their business."
+
+This decided them and they gave in.  The door-keeper sent to order
+the boat, and promised to let me have a dainty supper by midnight.
+
+The hours passed by in jests and merriment, and when we sat down
+to supper I made the champagne corks fly to such an extent that
+the girls began to get rather gay.  I myself felt a little heated,
+and as I held each one's secret I had the hardihood to tell them
+that their scruples were ridiculous, as each of them had shewn no
+reserve to me in private.
+
+At this they gazed at one another in a kind of blank surprise, as
+if indignant at what I had said.  Foreseeing that feminine pride
+might prompt them to treat my accusation as an idle calumny, I
+resolved not to give them time, and drawing Manon on to my knee I
+embraced her with such ardour that she gave in and abandoned
+herself to my passion.  Her example overcame the others, and for
+five hours we indulged in every kind of voluptuous enjoyment.  At
+the end of that time we were all in need of rest, but I had to go.
+I wanted to give them some jewels, but they said they would rather
+I ordered gloves to the amount of thirty louis, the money to be
+paid in advance, and the gloves not to be called for.
+
+I went to sleep on board the boat, and did not awake till we got
+to Avignon.  I was conducted to the inn of "St. Omen" and supped
+in my room in spite of the marvellous tales which Le Duc told me
+of a young beauty at the public table.
+
+Next morning my Spaniard told me that the beauty and her husband
+slept in a room next to mine.  At the same time he brought me a
+bill of the play, and I saw Company from Paris, with Mdlle.
+Astrodi, who was to sing and dance.  I gave a cry of wonder, and
+exclaimed,--
+
+"The famous Astrodi at Avignon--how she will be astonished to see
+me!"
+
+Not wanting to live in hermit fashion, I went downstairs to dine
+at the public table, and I found a score of people sitting down to
+such a choice repast that I could not conceive how it could be
+done for forty sous a head.  The fair stranger drew all eyes, and
+especially mine, towards her.  She was a young and perfect beauty,
+silent, her eyes fixed on a napkin, replying in monosyllables to
+those who addressed her, and glancing at the speaker with large
+blue eyes, the beauty of which it would be difficult to describe.
+Her husband was seated at the other end of the table--a man of a
+kind that inspires contempt at the first glance.  He was young,
+marked with the small-pox, a greedy eater, a loud talker, laughing
+and speaking at random, and altogether I took him for a servant in
+disguise.  Feeling sure that such a fellow did not know how to
+refuse, I sent him a glass of champagne, which he drank off to my
+health forthwith.  "May I have the pleasure of sending a glass to
+your wife?"  He replied, with a roar of laughter, to ask her
+myself; and with a slight bow she told me that she never took
+anything to drink.  When the dessert came in she rose, and her
+husband followed her to their room.
+
+A stranger who like myself had never seen her before, asked me who
+she was.  I said I was a newcomer and did not know, and somebody
+else said that her husband called himself the Chevalier Stuard,
+that he came from Lyons, and was going to Marseilles; he came, it
+appeared, to Avignon a week ago, without servants, and in a very
+poor carriage.
+
+I intended staying at Avignon only as long as might be necessary
+to see the Fountain or Fall of Vaucluse, and so I had not got any
+letters of introduction, and had not the pretext of acquaintance
+that I might stay and enjoy her fine eyes.  But an Italian who had
+read and enjoyed the divine Petrarch would naturally wish to see
+the place made divine by the poet's love for Laura.  I went to the
+theatre, where I saw the vice-legate Salviati, women of fashion,
+neither fair nor foul, and a wretched comic opera; but I neither
+saw Astrodi nor any other actor from the Comedie Italienne at
+Paris.
+
+"Where is the famous Astrodi?" said I, to a young man sitting by
+me, "I have not seen her yet."
+
+"Excuse me, she has danced and sang before your eyes."
+
+"By Jove, it's impossible!  I know her perfectly, and if she has
+so changed as not to be recognized she is no longer herself."
+
+I turned to go, and two minutes after the young man I had
+addressed came up and begged me to come back, and he would take me
+to Astradi's dressing-room, as she had recognized me.  I followed
+him without saying a word, and saw a plain-looking girl, who threw
+her arms round my neck and addressed me by my name, though I could
+have sworn I had never seen her before, but she did not leave me
+time to speak.  Close by I saw a man who gave himself out as the
+father of the famous Astrodi, who was known to all Paris, who had
+caused the death of the Comte d'Egmont, one of the most amiable
+noblemen of the Court of Louis XV.  I thought this ugly female
+might be her sister, so I sat down and complimented her on her
+talents.  She asked if I would mind her changing her dress; and in
+a moment she was running here and there, laughing and shewing a
+liberality which possibly might have been absent if what she had
+to display had been worth seeing.
+
+I laughed internally at her wiles, for after my experiences at
+Grenoble she would have found it a hard task to arouse my desires
+if she had been as pretty as she was ugly.  Her thinness and her
+tawny skin could not divert my attention from other still less
+pleasing features about her.  I admired her confidence in spite of
+her disadvantages.  She must have credited me with a diabolic
+appetite, but these women often contrive to extract charms out of
+their depravity which their delicacy would be impotent to furnish.
+She begged me to sup with her, and as she persisted I was obliged
+to refuse her in a way I should not have allowed myself to use
+with any other woman.  She then begged me to take four tickets for
+the play the next day, which was to be for her benefit.  I saw it
+was only a matter of twelve francs, and delighted to be quit of
+her so cheaply I told her to give me sixteen.  I thought she would
+have gone mad with joy when I gave her a double louis.  She was
+not the real Astrodi.  I went back to my inn and had a delicious
+supper in my own room.
+
+While Le Duc was doing my hair before I went to bed, he told me
+that the landlord had paid a visit to the fair stranger and her
+husband before supper, and had said in clear terms that he must be
+paid next morning; and if he were not, no place would be laid for
+them at table, and their linen would be detained.
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"I heard it from here; their room is only separated from this by a
+wooden partition.  If they were in it now, I am sure they could
+hear all we are saying."
+
+"Where are they, then?"
+
+"At table, where they are eating for to-morrow, but the lady is
+crying.  There's a fine chance for you, sir."
+
+"Be quiet; I shan't have anything to do with it.  It's a trap, for
+a woman of any worth would die rather than weep at a public
+table."
+
+"Ah, if you saw how pretty she looks in tears!  I am only a poor
+devil, but I would willingly give her two louis if she would earn
+them."
+
+"Go and offer her the money."
+
+A moment after the gentleman and his wife came back to their room,
+and I heard the loud voice of the one and the sobs of the other,
+but as he was speaking Walloon I did not understand what he said.
+
+"Go to bed," said I to Le Duc, "and next morning tell the landlord
+to get me another room, for a wooden partition is too thin a
+barrier to keep off people whom despair drive to extremities."
+
+I went to bed myself, and the sobs and muttering did not die away
+till midnight.
+
+I was shaving next morning, when Le Duc announced the Chevalier
+Stuard.
+
+"Say I don't know anybody of that name."
+
+He executed my orders, and returned saying that the chevalier on
+hearing my refusal to see him had stamped with rage, gone into his
+chamber, and come out again with his sword beside him.
+
+"I am going to see," added Le Duc, "that your pistols are well
+primed for the future."
+
+I felt inclined to laugh, but none the less I admired the
+foresight of my Spaniard, for a man in despair is capable of
+anything.
+
+"Go," said I, "and ask the landlord to give me another room."
+
+In due course the landlord came himself and told me that he could
+not oblige me until the next day.
+
+"If you don't get me another room I shall leave your house on the
+spot, because I don't like hearing sobs and reproaches all night."
+
+"Can you hear them, sir?"
+
+"You can hear them yourself now.  What do you think of it?  The
+woman will kill herself, and you will be the cause of her death."
+
+"I, sir?  I have only asked them to pay me my just debts."
+
+"Hush! there goes the husband.  I am sure he is telling his wife
+in his language that you are an unfeeling monster."
+
+"He may tell her what he likes so long as he pays me."
+
+"You have condemned them to die of hunger.  How much do they owe
+you?"
+
+"Fifty francs."
+
+"Aren't you ashamed of making such a row for a wretched sum like
+that?"
+
+"Sir, I am only ashamed of an ill deed, and I do not commit such a
+deed in asking for my own."
+
+"There's your money.  Go and tell them that you have been paid,
+and that they may eat again; but don't say who gave you the
+money."
+
+"That's what I call a good action," said the fellow; and he went
+and told them that they did not owe him anything, but that they
+would never know who paid the money.
+
+"You may dine and sup," he added, "at the public table, but you
+must pay me day by day."
+
+After he had delivered this speech in a high voice, so that I
+could hear as well as if I had been in the room, he came back to
+me.
+
+"You stupid fool!" said I, pushing him away, "they will know
+everything."  So saying I shut my door.
+
+Le Duc stood in front of me, staring stupidly before him.
+
+"What's the matter with you, idiot?" said I.
+
+"That's fine.  I see.  I am going on the stage.  You would do well
+to become an actor."
+
+"You are a fool."
+
+"Not so big a fool as you think."
+
+"I am going for a walk; mind you don't leave my room for a
+moment."
+
+I had scarcely shut the door when the chevalier accosted me and
+overwhelmed me with thanks.
+
+"Sir, I don't know to what you are referring."
+
+He thanked me again and left me, and walking by the banks of the
+Rhone, which geographers say is the most rapid river in Europe, I
+amused myself by looking at the ancient bridge.  At dinner-time I
+went back to the inn, and as the landlord knew that I paid six
+francs a meal he treated me to an exquisite repast.  Here, I
+remember, I had some exceedingly choice Hermitage.  It was so
+delicious that I drank nothing else.  I wished to make a
+pilgrimage to Vaucluse and begged the landlord to procure me a
+good guide, and after I had dressed I went to the theatre.
+
+I found the Astrodi at the door, and giving her my sixteen
+tickets, I sat down near the box of the vice-legate Salviati, who
+came in a little later, surrounded by a numerous train of ladies
+and gentlemen bedizened with orders and gold lace.
+
+The so-called father of the false Astrodi came and whispered that
+his daughter begged me to say that she was the celebrated Astrodi
+I had known at Paris.  I replied, also in a whisper, that I would
+not run the risk of being posted as a liar by bolstering up an
+imposture.  The ease with which a rogue invites a gentleman to
+share in a knavery is astonishing; he must think his confidence
+confers an honour.
+
+At the end of the first act a score of lackeys in the prince's
+livery took round ices to the front boxes.  I thought it my duty
+to refuse.  A young gentleman, as fair as love, came up to me, and
+with easy politeness asked me why I had refused an ice.
+
+"Not having the honour to know anyone here, I did not care that
+anyone should be able to say that he had regaled one who was
+unknown to him."
+
+"But you, sir, are a man who needs no introduction."
+
+"You do me too much honour."
+
+"You are staying at the 'St. Omer'!"
+
+"Yes; I am only stopping here to see Vaucluse, where I think of
+going to-morrow if I can get a good guide."
+
+"If you would do me the honour of accepting me, I should be
+delighted.  My name is Dolci, I am son of the captain of the vice-
+legate's guard."
+
+"I feel the honour you do me, and I accept your obliging offer.  I
+will put off my start till your arrival."
+
+"I will be with you at seven."
+
+I was astonished at the easy grace of this young Adonis, who might
+have been a pretty girl if the tone of his voice had not announced
+his manhood.  I laughed at the false Astrodi, whose acting was as
+poor as her face, and who kept staring at me all the time.  While
+she sang she regarded me with a smile and gave me signs of an
+understanding, which must have made the audience notice me, and
+doubtless pity my bad taste.  The voice and eyes of one actress
+pleased me; she was young and tall, but hunchbacked to an
+extraordinary degree.  She was tall in spite of her enormous
+humps, and if it had not been for this malformation she would have
+been six feet high.  Besides her pleasing eyes and very tolerable
+voice I fancied that, like all hunchbacks, she was intelligent.  I
+found her at the door with the ugly Astrodi when I was leaving the
+theatre.  The latter was waiting to thank me, and the other was
+selling tickets for her benefit.
+
+After the Astrodi had thanked me, the hunchbacked girl turned
+towards me, and with a smile that stretched from ear to ear and
+displayed at least twenty-four exquisite teeth, she said that she
+hoped I would honour her by being present at her benefit.
+
+"If I don't leave before it comes off, I will," I replied.
+
+At this the impudent Astrodi laughed, and in the hearing of
+several ladies waiting for their carriages told me that her friend
+might be sure of my presence, as she would not let me go before
+the benefit night.  "Give him sixteen tickets," she added.  I was
+ashamed to refuse, and gave her two louis.  Then in a lower voice
+the Astrodi said, "After the show we will come and sup with you,
+but on the condition that you ask nobody else, as we want to be
+alone."
+
+In spite of a feeling of anger, I thought that such a supper-party
+would be amusing, and as no one in the town knew me I resolved to
+stay in the hope of enjoying a hearty laugh.
+
+I was having my supper when Stuard and his wife went to their
+room.  This night I heard no sobs nor reproaches, but early next
+morning I was surprised to see the chevalier who said, as if we
+had been old friends, that he had heard that I was going to
+Vaucluse, and that as I had taken a carriage with four places he
+would be much obliged if I would allow him and his wife, who
+wanted to see the fountain, to go with me.  I consented.
+
+Le Duc begged to be allowed to accompany me on horseback, saying
+that he had been a true prophet.  In fact it seemed as if the
+couple had agreed to repay me for my expenditure by giving me new
+hopes.  I was not displeased with the expedition, and it was all
+to my advantage, as I had had recourse to no stratagems to obtain
+it.
+
+Dolci came, looking as handsome as an angel; my neighbours were
+ready, and the carriage loaded with the best provisions in food
+and drink that were obtainable; and we set off, Dolci seated
+beside the lady and I beside the chevalier.
+
+I had thought that the lady's sadness would give place, if not to
+gaiety, at least to a quiet cheerfulness, but I was mistaken; for,
+to all my remarks, grave or gay, she replied, either in
+monosyllables or in a severely laconic style.  Poor Dolci, who was
+full of wit, was stupefied.  He thought himself the cause of her
+melancholy, and was angry with himself for having innocently cast
+a shadow on the party of pleasure.  I relieved him of his fears by
+telling him that when he offered me his pleasant society I was not
+aware that I was to be of service to the fair lady.  I added that
+when at day-break I received this information, I was pleased that
+he would have such good company.  The lady did not say a word.
+She kept silent and gloomy all the time, and gazed to right and
+left like one who does not see what is before his [her] eyes.
+
+Dolci felt at ease after my explanation, and did his best to
+arouse the lady, but without success.  He talked on a variety of
+topics to the husband, always giving her an opportunity of joining
+in, but her lips remained motionless.  She looked like the statue
+of Pandora before it had been quickened by the divine flame.
+
+The beauty of her face was perfect; her eyes were of a brilliant
+blue, her complexion a delicate mixture of white and red, her arms
+were as rounded as a Grace's, her hands plump and well shaped, her
+figure was that of a nymph's, giving delightful hints of a
+magnificent breast; her hair was a chestnut brown, her foot small:
+she had all that constitutes a beautiful woman save that gift of
+intellect, which makes beauty more beautiful, and gives a charm to
+ugliness itself.  My vagrant fancy shewed me her naked form, all
+seemed ravishing, and yet I thought that though she might inspire
+a passing fancy she could not arouse a durable affection.  She
+might minister to a man's pleasures, she could not make him happy.
+I arrived at the isle resolved to trouble myself about her no
+more; she might, I thought, be mad, or in despair at finding
+herself in the power of a man whom she could not possibly love.  I
+could not help pitying her, and yet I could not forgive her for
+consenting to be of a party which she knew she must spoil by her
+morose behaviour.
+
+As for the self-styled Chevalier Stuard, I did not trouble my head
+whether he were her husband or her lover.  He was young,
+commonplace-looking, he spoke affectedly; his manners were not
+good, and his conversation betrayed both ignorance and stupidity.
+He was a beggar, devoid of money and wits, and I could not make
+out why he took with him a beauty who, unless she were over-kind,
+could add nothing to his means of living.  Perhaps he expected to
+live at the expense of simpletons, and had come to the conclusion,
+in spite of his ignorance, that the world is full of such;
+however, experience must have taught him that this plan cannot be
+relied on.
+
+When we got to Vaucluse I let Dolci lead; he had been there a
+hundred times, and his merit was enhanced in my eyes by the fact
+that he was a lover of the lover of Laura.  We left the carriage
+at Apt, and wended our way to the fountain which was honoured that
+day with a numerous throng of pilgrims.  The stream pours forth
+from a vast cavern, the handiwork of nature, inimitable by man.
+It is situated at the foot of a rock with a sheer descent of more
+than a hundred feet.  The cavern is hardly half as high, and the
+water pours forth from it in such abundance that it deserves the
+name of river at its source.  It is the Sorgue which falls into
+the Rhone near Avignon.  There is no other stream as pure and
+clear, for the rocks over which it flows harbour no deposits of
+any kind.  Those who dislike it on account of its apparent
+blackness should remember that the extreme darkness of the cavern
+gives it that gloomy tinge.
+
+          Chiare fresche a dolce aque
+          Ove le belle membra
+          Pose colei the sola a me pay donna.
+
+I wished to ascend to that part of the rock where Petrarch's house
+stood.  I gazed on the remains with tears in my eyes, like Leo
+Allatius at Homer's grave.  Sixteen years later I slept at Arqua,
+where Petrarch died, and his house still remains.  The likeness
+between the two situations was astonishing, for from Petrarch's
+study at Arqua a rock can be seen similar to that which may be
+viewed at Vaucluse; this was the residence of Madonna Laura.
+
+"Let us go there," said I, "it is not far off."
+
+I will not endeavour to delineate my feelings as I contemplated
+the ruins of the house where dwelt the lady whom the amorous
+Petrarch immortalised in his verse--verse made to move a heart of
+stone:
+
+          "Morte bella parea nel suo bel viso"
+
+I threw myself with arms outstretched upon the ground as if I
+would embrace the very stones.  I kissed them, I watered them with
+my tears, I strove to breathe the holy breath they once contained.
+I begged Madame Stuard's pardon for having left her arm to do
+homage to the spirit of a woman who had quickened the profoundest
+soul that ever lived.
+
+I say soul advisedly, for after all the body and the senses had
+nothing to do with the connection.
+
+"Four hundred years have past and gone," said I to the statue of a
+woman who gazed at me in astonishment, "since Laura de Sade walked
+here; perhaps she was not as handsome as you, but she was lively,
+kindly, polite, and good of heart.  May this air which she
+breathed and which you breathe now kindle in you the spark of fire
+divine; that fire that coursed through her veins, and made her
+heart beat and her bosom swell.  Then you would win the worship of
+all worthy men, and from none would you receive the least offence.
+Gladness, madam, is the lot of the happy, and sadness the portion
+of souls condemned to everlasting pains.  Be cheerful, then, and
+you will do something to deserve your beauty."
+
+The worthy Dolci was kindled by my enthusiasm.  He threw himself
+upon me, and kissed me again and again; the fool Stuard laughed;
+and his wife, who possibly thought me mad, did not evince the
+slightest emotion.  She took my arm, and we walked slowly towards
+the house of Messer Francesco d'Arezzo, where I spent a quarter of
+an hour in cutting my name.  After that we had our dinner.
+
+Dolci lavished more attention on the extraordinary woman than I
+did.  Stuard did nothing but eat and drink, and despised the
+Sorgue water, which, said he, would spoil the Hermitage; possibly
+Petrarch may have been of the same opinion.  We drank deeply
+without impairing our reason, but the lady was very temperate.
+When we reached Avignon we bade her farewell, declining the
+invitation of her foolish husband to come and rest in his rooms.
+
+I took Dolci's arm and we walked beside the Rhone as the sun went
+down.  Among other keen and witty observations the young man
+said,--
+
+"That woman is an old hand, infatuated with a sense of her own
+merit.  I would bet that she has only left her own country because
+her charms, from being too freely displayed, have ceased to please
+there.  She must be sure of making her fortune out of anybody she
+comes across.  I suspect that the fellow who passes for her
+husband is a rascal, and that her pretended melancholy is put on
+to drive a persistent lover to distraction.  She has not yet
+succeeded in finding a dupe, but as she will no doubt try to catch
+a rich man, it is not improbable that she is hovering over you.".
+
+When a young man of Dolci's age reasons like that, he is bound to
+become a great master.  I kissed him as I bade him good-night,
+thanked him for his kindness, and we agreed that we would see more
+of one another.
+
+As I came back to my inn I was accosted by a fine-looking man of
+middle age, who greeted me by name and asked with great politeness
+if I had found Vaucluse as fine as I had expected.  I was
+delighted to recognize the Marquis of Grimaldi, a Genoese, a
+clever and good-natured man, with plenty of money, who always
+lived at Venice because he was more at liberty to enjoy himself
+there than in his native country; which shews that there is no
+lack of freedom at Venice.
+
+After I had answered his question I followed him into his room,
+where having exhausted the subject of the fountain he asked me
+what I thought of my fair companion.
+
+"I did not find her satisfactory in all respects," I answered; and
+noticing the reserve with which I spoke, he tried to remove it by
+the following confession:
+
+"There are some very pretty women in Genoa, but not one to compare
+with her whom you took to Vaucluse to-day.  I sat opposite to her
+at table yesterday evening, and I was struck with her perfect
+beauty.  I offered her my arm up the stair; I told her that I was
+sorry to see her so sad, and if I could do anything for her she
+had only to speak.  You know I was aware she had no money.  Her
+husband, real or pretended, thanked me for my offer, and after I
+had wished them a good night I left them.
+
+"An hour ago you left her and her husband at the door of their
+apartment, and soon afterwards I took the liberty of calling.  She
+welcomed me with a pretty bow, and her husband went out directly,
+begging me to keep her company till his return.  The fair one made
+no difficulty in sitting next to me on a couch, and this struck me
+as a good omen, but when I took her hand she gently drew it away.
+I then told, her, in as few words as I could, that her beauty had
+made me in love with her, and that if she wanted a hundred louis
+they were at her service, if she would drop her melancholy, and
+behave in a manner suitable to the feelings with which she had
+inspired me.  She only replied by a motion of the head, which
+shewed gratitude, but also an absolute refusal of my offer.  'I am
+going to-morrow,' said I.  No answer.  I took her hand again, and
+she drew it back with an air of disdain which wounded me.  I
+begged her to excuse me, and I left the room without more ado.
+
+"That's an account of what happened an hour ago.  I am not amorous
+of her, it was only a whim; but knowing, as I do, that she has no
+money, her manner astonished me.  I fancied that you might have
+placed her in a position to despise my offer, and this would
+explain her conduct, in a measure; otherwise I can't understand it
+at all.  May I ask you to tell me whether you are more fortunate
+than I?"
+
+I was enchanted with the frankness of this noble gentleman, and
+did not hesitate to tell him all, and we laughed together at our
+bad fortune: I had to promise to call on him at Genoa, and tell
+him whatever happened between us during the two days I purposed to
+remain at Avignon.  He asked me to sup with him and admire the
+fair recalcitrant.
+
+"She has had an excellent dinner," said I, "and in all probability
+she will not have any supper."
+
+"I bet she will," said the marquis; and he was right, which made
+me see clearly that the woman was playing a part.  A certain Comte
+de Bussi, who had just come, was placed next to her at table.  He
+was a good-looking young man with a fatuous sense of his own
+superiority, and he afforded us an amusing scene.
+
+He was good-natured, a wit, and inclined to broad jokes, and his
+manner towards women bordered on the impudent.  He had to leave at
+midnight and began to make love to his fair neighbour forthwith,
+and teased her in a thousand ways; but she remained as dumb as a
+statue, while he did all the talking and laughing, not regarding
+it within the bounds of possibility that she might be laughing at
+him.
+
+I looked at M. Grimaldi, who found it as difficult to keep his
+countenance as I did.  The young roue was hurt at her silence, and
+continued pestering her, giving her all the best pieces on his
+plate after tasting them first.  The lady refused to take them,
+and he tried to put them into her mouth, while she repulsed him in
+a rage.  He saw that no one seemed inclined to take her part, and
+determined to continue the assault, and taking her hand he kissed
+it again and again.  She tried to draw it away, and as she rose he
+put his arm round her waist and made her sit down on his knee; but
+at this point the husband took her arm and led her out of the
+room.  The attacking party looked rather taken aback for a moment
+as he followed her with his eyes, but sat down again and began to
+eat and laugh afresh, while everybody else kept a profound
+silence.  He then turned to the footman behind his chair and asked
+him if his sword was upstairs.  The footman said no, and then the
+fatuous young man turned to an abbe who sat near me, and enquired
+who had taken away his mistress:
+
+"It was her husband," said the abbe.
+
+"Her husband!  Oh, that's another thing; husbands don't fight--a
+man of honour always apologises to them."
+
+With that he got up, went upstairs, and came down again directly,
+saying,--
+
+"The husband's a fool.  He shut the door in my face, and told me
+to satisfy my desires somewhere else.  It isn't worth the trouble
+of stopping, but I wish I had made an end of it."
+
+He then called for champagne, offered it vainly to everybody, bade
+the company a polite farewell and went upon his way.
+
+As M. Grimaldi escorted me to my room he asked me what I had
+thought of the scene we had just witnessed.  I told him I would
+not have stirred a finger, even if he had turned up her clothes.
+
+"No more would I," said he, "but if she had accepted my hundred
+louis it would have been different.  I am curious to know the
+further history of this siren, and I rely upon you to tell me all
+about it as you go through Genoa."
+
+He went away at day-break next morning.
+
+When I got up I received a note from the false Astrodi, asking me
+if I expected her and her great chum to supper.  I had scarcely
+replied in the affirmative, when the sham Duke of Courland I had
+left at Grenoble appeared on the scene.  He confessed in a humble
+voice that he was the son of clock-maker at Narva, that his
+buckles were valueless, and that he had come to beg an alms of me.
+I gave him four Louis, and he asked me to keep his secret.  I
+replied that if anyone asked me about him that I should say what
+was absolutely true, that I knew him nothing about him.  "Thank
+you; I am now going to Marseilles."  "I hope you will have a
+prosperous journey."  Later on my readers will hear.  how I found
+him at Genoa.  It is a good thing to know something about people
+of his kind, of whom there are far too many in the world.
+
+I called up the landlord and told him I wanted a delicate supper
+for three in my own room.
+
+He told me that I should have it, and then said, "I have just had
+a row with the Chevalier Stuard."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"Because he has nothing to pay me with, and I am going to turn
+them out immediately, although the lady is in bed in convulsions
+which are suffocating her."
+
+"Take out your bill in her charms."
+
+"Ah, I don't care for that sort of thing!  I am getting on in
+life, and I don't want any more scenes to bring discredit on my
+house."
+
+"Go and tell her that from henceforth she and her husband will
+dine and sup in their own room and that I will pay for them as
+long as I remain here."
+
+"You are very generous, sir, but you know that meals in a private
+room are charged double."
+
+"I know they are."
+
+"Very good."
+
+I shuddered at the idea of the woman being turned out of doors
+without any resources but her body, by which she refused to
+profit.  On the other hand I could not condemn the inn-keeper who,
+like his fellows, was not troubled with much gallantry.  I had
+yielded to an impulse of pity without any hopes of advantage for
+myself.  Such were my thoughts when Stuard came to thank me,
+begging me to come and see his wife and try and persuade her to
+behave in a different manner.
+
+"She will give me no answers, and you know that that sort of thing
+is rather tedious."
+
+"Come, she knows what you have done for her; she will talk to you,
+for her feelings .  .  .  ."
+
+"What business have you to talk about feelings after what happened
+yesterday evening?"
+
+"It was well for that gentleman that he went away at midnight,
+otherwise I should have killed him this morning."
+
+"My dear sir, allow me to tell you that all that is pure
+braggadocio.  Yesterday, not to-day, was the time to kill him, or
+to throw your plate at his head, at all events.  We will now go
+and see your wife."
+
+I found her in bed, her face to the wall, the coverlet right up to
+her chin, and her body convulsed with sobs.  I tried to bring her
+to reason, but as usual got no reply.  Stuard wanted to leave me,
+but I told him that if he went out I would go too, as I could do
+nothing to console her, as he might know after her refusing the
+Marquis of Grimaldi's hundred louis for a smile and her hand to
+kiss.
+
+"A hundred Louis!" cried the fellow with a sturdy oath; "what
+folly! We might have been at home at Liege by now.  A princess
+allows one to kiss her hand for nothing, and she....  A hundred
+Louis!  Oh, damnable!"
+
+His exclamations, very natural under the circumstances, made me
+feel inclined to laugh.  The poor devil swore by all his gods, and
+I was about to leave the room, when all at once the wretched woman
+was seized with true or false convulsions.  With one hand she
+seized a water-bottle and sent it flying into the middle of the
+room, and with the other she tore the clothes away from her
+breast.  Stuard tried to hold her, but her disorder increased in
+violence, and the coverlet was disarranged to such a degree that I
+could see the most exquisite naked charms imaginable.  At last she
+grew calm, and her eyes closed as if exhausted; she remained in
+the most voluptuous position that desire itself could have
+invented.  I began to get very excited.  How was I to look on such
+beauties without desiring to possess them?  At this point her
+wretched husband left the room, saying he was gone to fetch some
+water.  I saw the snare, and my self-respect prevented my being
+caught in it.  I had an idea that the whole scene had been
+arranged with the intent that I should deliver myself up to brutal
+pleasure, while the proud and foolish woman would be free to
+disavow all participation in the fact.  I constrained myself, and
+gently veiled what I would fain have revealed in all its naked
+beauty.  I condemned to darkness these charms which this monster
+of a woman only wished me to enjoy that I might be debased.
+
+Stuard was long enough gone.  When he came back with the water-
+bottle full, he was no doubt surprised to find me perfectly calm,
+and in no disorder of any kind, and a few minutes afterwards I
+went out to cool myself by the banks of the Rhone.
+
+I walked along rapidly, feeling enraged with myself, for I felt
+that the woman had bewitched me.  In vain I tried to bring myself
+to reason; the more I walked the more excited I became, and I
+determined that after what I had seen the only cure for my
+disordered fancy was enjoyment, brutal or not.  I saw that I
+should have to win her, not by an appeal to sentiment but by hard
+cash, without caring what sacrifices I made.  I regretted my
+conduct, which then struck me in the light of false delicacy, for
+if I had satisfied my desires and she chose to turn prude, I might
+have laughed her to scorn, and my position would have been
+unassailable.  At last I determined on telling the husband that I
+would give him twenty-five louis if he could obtain me an
+interview in which I could satisfy my desires.
+
+Full of this idea I went back to the inn, and had my dinner in my
+own room without troubling to enquire after her.  Le Duc told me
+that she was dining in her room too, and that the landlord had
+told the company that she would not take her meals in public any
+more.  This was information I possessed already.
+
+After dinner I called on the good-natured Dolci, who introduced me
+to his father, an excellent man, but not rich enough to satisfy
+his son's desire of travelling.  The young man was possessed of
+considerable dexterity, and performed a number of very clever
+conjuring tricks.  He had an amiable nature, and seeing that I was
+curious to know about his love affairs he told me numerous little
+stories which shewed me that he was at that happy age when one's
+inexperience is one's sole misfortune.
+
+There was a rich lady for whom he did not care, as she wanted him
+to give her that which he would be ashamed to give save for love,
+and there was a girl who required him to treat her with respect.
+I thought I could give him a piece of good advice, so I told him
+to grant his favours to the rich woman, and to fail in respect now
+and again to the girl, who would be sure to scold and then
+forgive.  He was no profligate, and seemed rather inclined to
+become a Protestant.  He amused himself innocently with his
+friends of his own age, in a garden near Avignon, and a sister of
+the gardener's wife was kind to him when they were alone.
+
+In the evening I went back to the inn, and I had not long to wait
+for the Astrodi and the Lepi (so the hunchbacked girl was named);
+but when I saw these two caricatures of women I felt stupefied.  I
+had expected them, of course, but the reality confounded me.  The
+Astrodi tried to counterbalance her ugliness by an outrageous
+freedom of manners; while the Lepi, who though a hunchback was
+very talented and an excellent actress, was sure of exciting
+desire by the rare beauty of her eyes and teeth, which latter
+challenged admiration from her enormous mouth by their regularity
+and whiteness.  The Astrodi rushed up to me and gave me an Italian
+embrace, to which, willy nilly, I was obliged to submit.  The
+quieter Lepi offered me her cheek, which I pretended to kiss.  I
+saw that the Astrodi was in a fair way to become intolerable, so I
+begged her to moderate her transports, because as a novice at
+these parties I wanted to get accustomed to them by degrees.  She
+promised that she would be very good.
+
+While we were waiting for supper I asked her, for the sake of
+something to say, whether she had found a lover at Avignon.
+
+"Only the vice-legate's auditor," she replied; "and though he
+makes me his pathic he is good-natured and generous.  I have
+accustomed myself to his taste easily enough, though I should have
+thought such a thing impossible a year ago, as I fancied the
+exercise a harmful one, but I was wrong."
+
+"So the auditor makes a boy of you?"
+
+"Yes.  My sister would have adored him, as that sort of love is
+her passion."
+
+"But your sister has such fine haunches."
+
+"So have I!  Look here, feel me."
+
+"You are right; but wait a bit, it is too soon for that kind of
+thing yet."
+
+"We will be wanton after supper."
+
+"I think you are wanton now," said the Lepi.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why?  Ought you to shew your person like that?"
+
+"My dear girl, you will be shewing yourself soon.  When one is in
+good company, one is in the golden age."
+
+"I wonder at your telling everyone what sort of a connection you
+have with the auditor," said I.
+
+"Nonsense!  I don't tell everyone, but everyone tells me and
+congratulates me too.  They know the worthy man never cared for
+women, and it would be absurd to deny what everybody guesses.  I
+used to be astonished at my sister, but the best plan in this
+world is to be astonished at nothing.  But don't you like that?"
+
+"No, I only like this."
+
+As I spoke I laid hands on the Lepi, on the spot where one usually
+finds what I called "this;" but the Astrodi, seeing that I found
+nothing, burst into a roar of laughter, and taking my hand put it
+just under her front hump, where at last I found what I wanted.
+The
+reader will guess my surprise.  The poor creature, too ashamed to
+be prudish, laughed too.  My spirits also begin to rise, as I
+thought of the pleasure I should get out of this new discovery
+after supper.
+
+"Have you never had a lover?" said I to the Lepi.
+
+"No," said the Astrodi, "she is still a maid."
+
+"No, I am not," replied the Lepi, in some confusion, "I had a
+lover at Bordeaux, and another at Montpellier."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you are still as you were born."
+
+"I can't deny it."
+
+"What's that?  Two lovers and still a maid!  I don't understand;
+please tell me about it, for I have never heard of such a thing."
+
+"Before I satisfied my first lover which happened when I was only
+twelve, I was just the same as I am now."
+
+"It's wonderful.  And what did he say when he saw it?"
+
+"I swore that he was my first, and he believed me, putting it down
+to the peculiar shape of my body."
+
+"He was a man of spirit; but didn't he hurt you?"
+
+"Not a bit; but then he was very gentle."
+
+"You must have a try after supper," said the Astrodi to me, "that
+would be fine fun."
+
+"No, no," said the Lepi, "the gentleman would be too big for me."
+
+"Nonsense!  You don't want to take in all of him.  I will show you
+how it is."
+
+With these words the impudent hussy proceeded to exhibit me, and I
+let her do what she liked.
+
+"That's just what I should have thought," cried the Lepi; "it
+could never be done."
+
+"Well, he is rather big," answered the Astrodi; "but there's a
+cure for everything, and he will be content with half-measures."
+
+"It's not the length, my dear, but the thickness which frightens
+me; I am afraid the door is too narrow."
+
+"All the better for you, for you can sell your maidenhead after
+having had two lovers."
+
+This conversation, not devoid of wit, and still more the
+simplicity of the hunchback, had made me resolve to verify things
+for myself.
+
+Supper came up, and I had the pleasure of seeing the two nymphs
+eat like starving savages, and drink still better.  When the
+Hermitage had done its work the Astrodi proposed that we should
+cast off the clothes which disfigure nature.
+
+"Certainly," said I; "and I will turn away while you are getting
+ready."
+
+I went behind the curtains, took off my clothes, and went to bed
+with my back to them.  At last the Astrodi told me that they were
+ready, and when I looked the Lepi took up all my attention.  In
+spite of her double deformity she was a handsome woman.  My
+glances frightened her, for she was doubtless taking part in an
+orgy for the first time.  I gave her courage, however, by dint of
+praising those charms which the white and beautiful hands could
+not hide, and at last I persuaded her to come and lie beside me.
+Her hump prevented her lying on her back, but the ingenious
+Astrodi doubled up the pillows and succeeded in placing her in a
+position similar to that of a ship about to be launched.  It was
+also by the tender care of the Astrodi that the introduction of
+the knife was managed, to the great delight of priest and victim.
+After the operation was over she got up and kissed me, which she
+could not do before, for her mouth reached to the middle of my
+chest, while my feet were scarcely down to her knees.  I would
+have given ten louis to have been able to see the curious sight we
+must have presented at work.
+
+"Now comes my turn," said the Astrodi; "but I don't want you to
+infringe on the rights of my auditor, so come and look round and
+see where the path lies.  Take that."
+
+"What am I to do with this slice of lemon?"
+
+"I want you to try whether the place is free from infection, or
+whether it would be dangerous for you to pay it a visit."
+
+"Is that a sure method?"
+
+"Infallible; if everything were not right I could not bear the
+smart."
+
+"There you are.  How's that?"
+
+"All right; but don't deceive me, I want no half measures.  My
+reputation would be made if I became with child."
+
+I ask my reader's leave to draw a veil over some incidents of this
+truly scandalous orgy, in which the ugly woman taught me some
+things I did not know before.  At last, more tired than exhausted,
+I told them to begone, but the Astrodi insisted on finishing up
+with a bowl of punch.  I agreed, but not wishing to have anything
+more to do with either of them I dressed myself again.  However,
+the champagne punch excited them to such an extent that at last
+they made me share their transports.  The Astrodi placed her
+friend in such a singular position that the humps were no longer
+visible, and imagining that I had before me the high priestess of
+Jove, I paid her a long sacrifice, in which death and resurrection
+followed one another in succession.  But I felt disgusted with
+myself, and drew away from their lascivious frenzies, and gave
+them ten Louis to get rid of them.  The Astrodi fell on her knees,
+blessed me, thanked me, called me her god; and the Lepi wept and
+laughed for joy at the same time; and thus for a quarter of an
+hour I was treated to a scene of an extraordinary kind.
+
+I had them taken home in my carriage, and slept till ten o'clock
+next morning.  Just as I was going out for a walk Stuard came to
+my room and told me, with an air of despair, that if I did not
+give him the means of going away before I left he would throw
+himself in the Rhine.
+
+"That's rather tragic," said I, "but I can find a cure.  I will
+disburse twenty-five Louis, but it is your wife who must receive
+them; and the only condition is that she must receive me alone for
+an hour, and be entirely kind."
+
+"Sir, we need just that sum; my wife is disposed to receive you;
+go and talk to her.  I shall not be in till noon."
+
+I put twenty-five Louis in a pretty little purse, and left my room
+thinking that the victory was won.  I entered her room and
+approached her bed respectfully.  When she heard me she sat up in
+bed without taking the trouble to cover her breast, and before I
+could wish her good-day she spoke to me as follows:
+
+"I am ready, sir, to pay with my body for the wretched twenty-five
+Louis of which my husband is in need.  You can do what you like
+with me; but remember that in taking advantage of my position to
+assuage your brutal lust you are the viler of the two, for I only
+sell myself so cheaply because necessity compels me to do so.
+Your baseness is more shameful than mine.  Come on; here I am."
+
+With this flattering address she threw off the coverlet with a
+vigorous gesture, and displayed all her beauties, which I might
+have gazed on with such different feelings from those which now
+filled my breast.  For a moment I was silent with indignation.
+All my passion had evaporated; in those voluptuous rounded limbs I
+saw now only the covering of a wild beast's soul.  I put back the
+coverlet with the greatest calmness, and addressed her in a tone
+of cold contempt:
+
+"No, madam, I shall not leave this room degraded because you have
+told me so, but I shall leave it after imparting to you a few
+degrading truths, of which you cannot be ignorant if you are a
+woman of any decency whatever.  Here are twenty-five louis, a
+wretched sum to give a virtuous woman in payment of her favours,
+but much more than you deserve.  I am not brutal, and to convince
+you of the fact I am going to leave you in the undisturbed
+possession of your charms, which I despise as heartily as I should
+have admired them if your behaviour had been different.  I only
+give you the money from a feeling of compassion which I cannot
+overcome, and which is the only feeling I now have for you.
+Nevertheless, let me tell you that whether a woman sells herself
+for twenty-five louis or twenty-five million louis she is as much
+a prostitute in the one case as in the other, if she does not give
+her love with herself, or at all events the semblance of love.
+Farewell."
+
+I went back to my room, and in course of time Stuard came to thank
+me.
+
+"Sir," said I, "let me alone; I wish to hear no more about your
+wife."
+
+They went away the next day for Lyons, and my readers will hear of
+them again at Liege.
+
+In the afternoon Dolci took me to his garden that I might see the
+gardener's sister.  She was pretty, but not so pretty as he was.
+He soon got her into a good humour, and after some trifling
+objection she consented to be loved by him in my presence.  I saw
+that this Adonis had been richly dowered by nature, and I told him
+that with such a physical conformation he had no need of emptying
+his father's purse to travel, and before long he took my advice.
+This fair Ganymede might easily have turned me into Jove, as he
+struggled amorously with the gardener's sister.
+
+As I was going home I saw a young man coming out of a boat; he was
+from twenty to twenty-five years old, and looked very sad.  Seeing
+me looking at him, he accosted me, and humbly asked for alms,
+shewing me a document authorizing him to beg, and a passport
+stating he had left Madrid six weeks before.  He came from Parma,
+and was named Costa.  When I saw Parma my national prejudice spoke
+in his favour, and I asked him what misfortune had reduced him to
+beggary.
+
+"Only lack of money to return to my native country," said he.
+
+"What were you doing at Madrid, and why did you leave?"
+
+"I was there four years as valet to Dr. Pistoria, physician to the
+King of Spain, but on my health failing I left him.  Here is a
+certificate which will shew you that I gave satisfaction."
+
+"What can you do?"
+
+"I write a good hand, I can assist a gentleman as his secretary,
+and I intend being a scribe when I get home.  Here are some verses
+I copied yesterday."
+
+"You write well; but can you write correctly without a book?"
+
+"I can write from dictation in French, Latin, and Spanish."
+
+"Correctly?"
+
+"Yes, sir, if the dictation is done properly, for it is the
+business of the one who dictates to see that everything is
+correct."
+
+I saw that Master Gaetan Costa was an ignoramus, but in spite of
+that I took him to my room and told Le Duc to address him in
+Spanish.  He answered well enough, but on my dictating to him in
+Italian and French I found he had not the remotest ideas on
+orthography.
+
+"But you can't write," said I to him.  However, I saw he was
+mortified at this, and I consoled him by saying that I would take
+him to his own country at my expense.  He kissed my hand, and
+assured me that I should find a faithful servant in him.
+
+This young fellow took my fancy by his originality; he had
+probably assumed it to distinguish himself from the blockheads
+amongst whom he had hitherto lived, and now used it in perfect
+good faith with everybody.  He thought that the art of a scribe
+solely consisted in possessing a good hand, and that the fairest
+writer would be the best scribe.  He said as much while he was
+examining a paper I had written, and as my writing was not as
+legible as his he tacitly told me I was his inferior, and that I
+should therefore treat him with some degree of respect.  I laughed
+at this fad, and, not thinking him incorrigible I took him into my
+service.  If it had not been for that odd notion of his I should
+probably have merely given him a louis, and no more.  He said that
+spelling was of no consequence, as those who knew how to spell
+could easily guess the words, while those who did not know were
+unable to pick out the mistakes.  I laughed, but as I said nothing
+he thought the laugh signified approval.  In the dictation I gave
+him the Council of Trent happened to occur.  According to his
+system he wrote Trent by a three and a nought.  I burst out
+laughing; but he was not in the least put out, only remarking that
+the pronunciation being the same it was of no consequence how the
+word was spelt.  In point of fact this lad was a fool solely
+through his intelligence, matched with ignorance and unbounded
+self-confidence.  I was pleased with his originality and kept him,
+and was thus the greater fool of the two, as the reader will see.
+
+I left Avignon next day, and went straight to Marseilles, not
+troubling to stop at Aix.  I halted at the "Treize Cantons,"
+wishing to stay for a week at least in this ancient colony of the
+Phocaeans, and to do as I liked there.  With this idea I took no
+letter of introduction; I had plenty of money, and needed nobody's
+help.  I told my landlord to give me a choice fish dinner in my
+own room, as I was aware that the fish in those parts is better
+than anywhere else.
+
+I went out the next morning with a guide, to take me back to the
+inn when I was tired of walking.  Not heeding where I went, I
+reached a fine quay; I thought I was at Venice again, and I felt
+my bosom swell, so deeply is the love of fatherland graven on the
+heart of every good man.  I saw a number of stalls where Spanish
+and Levantine wines were kept, and a number of people drinking in
+them.  A crowd of business men went hither and thither, running up
+against each other, crossing each other's paths, each occupied
+with his own business, and not caring whose way he got into.
+Hucksters, well dressed and ill dressed, women, pretty and plain,
+women who stared boldly at everyone, modest maidens with downcast
+eyes, such was the picture I saw.
+
+The mixture of nationalities, the grave Turk and the glittering
+Andalusian, the French dandy, the gross Negro, the crafty Greek,
+the dull Hollander; everything reminded me of Venice, and I
+enjoyed the scene.
+
+I stopped a moment at a street corner to read a playbill, and then
+I went back to the inn and refreshed my weary body with a
+delicious dinner, washed down with choice Syracusan wine.  After
+dinner I dressed and took a place in the amphitheatre of the
+theatre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Rosalie--Toulon--Nice--I Arrive at Genoa--M. Grimaldi--Veronique
+and Her Sister
+
+
+I noticed that the four principal boxes on both sides of the
+proscenium were adorned with pretty women, but not a single
+gentleman.  In the interval between the first and second acts I
+saw gentlemen of all classes paying their devoirs to these ladies.
+Suddenly I heard a Knight of Malta say to a girl, who was the sole
+occupant of a box next to me,
+
+"I will breakfast with you to-morrow."
+
+This was enough for me.  I looked at her more closely and finding
+her to be a dainty morsel I said, as soon as the knight had gone,-
+
+"Will you give me my supper?"
+
+"With pleasure; but I have been taken in so often that I shan't
+expect you without an earnest."
+
+"How can I give you an earnest?  I don't understand."
+
+"You must be a new-comer here."
+
+"Just arrived."
+
+She laughed, called the knight, and said,--
+
+"Be pleased to explain to this gentleman, who has just asked me
+for supper, the meaning of the word 'earnest.'"
+
+The good-natured knight explained, with a smile, that the lady,
+fearing lest my memory should prove defective, wanted me to pay
+for my supper in advance.  I thanked him, and asked her if a louis
+would be enough; and on her replying in the affirmative, I gave
+her the Louis and asked for her address.  The knight told me
+politely that he would take me there himself after the theatre,
+adding,--
+
+"She's the wantonest wench in all Marseilles."
+
+He then asked me if I knew the town, and when I told him that I
+had only come that day he said he was glad to be the first to make
+my acquaintance.  We went to the middle of, the amphitheatre and
+he pointed out a score of girls to right and left, all of them
+ready to treat the first comer to supper.  They are all on the
+free list, and the manager finds they serve his ends as
+respectable women will not sit in their boxes, and they draw
+people to the theatre.  I noticed five or six of a better type
+than the one I had engaged, but I resolved to stick to her for the
+evening, and to make the acquaintance of the others another time.
+
+"Is your favourite amongst them?" I said to the knight.
+
+"No, I keep a ballet-girl, and I will introduce you to her, as I
+am glad to say that I am free from all jealousy."
+
+When the play came to an end he took me to my nymph's lodging, and
+we parted with the understanding that we were to see more of one
+another.
+
+I found the lady in undress--a circumstance which went against
+her, for what I saw did not please me.  She gave me a capital
+supper, and enlivened me by some witty and wanton sallies which
+made me regard her in a more favourable light.  When we had supper
+she got into bed, and asked me to follow her example; but I told
+her that I never slept out.  She then offered me the English
+article which brings peace to the soul, but I did not accept the
+one she offered as I thought it looked of a common make.
+
+"I have finer ones, but they are three francs each, and the maker
+only sells them by the dozen," she said.  "I will take a dozen if
+they are really good," I replied.
+
+She rang the bell, and a young, charming, and modest-looking girl
+came in.  I was struck with her.
+
+"You have got a nice maid," I remarked, when the girl had gone for
+the protective sheaths.
+
+"She is only fifteen," she said, "and won't do anything, as she is
+new to it."
+
+"Will you allow me to see for myself?"
+
+"You may ask her if you like, but I don't think she will consent."
+
+The girl came back with the packet, and putting myself in a proper
+position I told her to try one on.  She proceeded to do so with a
+sulky air and with a kind of repugnance which made me feel
+interested in her.  Number one would not go on, so she had to try
+on a second, and the result was that I besprinkled her
+plentifully.  The mistress laughed, but she was indignant, threw
+the whole packet in my face, and ran away in a rage.  I wanted
+nothing more after this, so I put the packet in my pocket, gave
+the woman two Louis, and left the room.  The girl I had treated so
+cavalierly came to light me downstairs, and thinking I owed her an
+apology I gave her a Louis and begged her pardon.  The poor girl
+was astonished, kissed my hand, and begged me to say nothing to
+her mistress.
+
+"I will not, my dear, but tell me truly whether you are still a
+'virgo intacta'."
+
+"Certainly, sir!"
+
+"Wonderful!  but tell me why you wouldn't let me see for myself?"
+
+"Because it revolted me."
+
+"Nevertheless you will have to do so, for otherwise, in spite of
+your prettiness, people will not know what to make of you.  Would
+you like to let me try?"
+
+"Yes, but not in this horrible house."
+
+"Where, then?"
+
+"Go to my mother's to-morrow, I will be there.  Your guide knows
+where she lives."
+
+When I got outside, I asked the man if he knew her.  He replied in
+the affirmative, and said he believed her to be an honest girl.
+
+"You will take me to-morrow to see her mother," I said.
+
+Next morning he took me to the end of the town, to a poor house,
+where I found a poor woman and poor children living on the ground
+floor, and eating hard black bread.
+
+"What do you want?" said she.
+
+"Is you daughter here?"
+
+"No, and what if she were?  I am not her bawd."
+
+"No, of course not, my good woman."
+
+Just then the girl came in, and the enraged mother flung an old
+pot which came handy, at her head.  Luckily it missed, but she
+would not have escaped her mother's talons if I had not flung
+myself between them.  However, the old woman set up a dismal
+shriek, the children imitated her, and the poor girl began to cry.
+This hubbub made my man come in.
+
+"You hussy!" screamed the mother, "you are bringing disgrace on
+me; get out of my house.  You are no longer my daughter!"
+
+I was in a difficult position.  The man begged her not to make
+such a noise, as it would draw all the neighbours about the house;
+but the enraged woman answered only by abuse.  I drew six francs
+from my pocket and gave them to her, but she flung them in my
+face.  At last I went out with the daughter, whose hair she
+attempted to pull out by the roots, which project was defeated by
+the aid of my man.  As soon as we got outside, the mob which the
+uproar had attracted hooted me and followed me, and no doubt I
+should have been torn to pieces if I had not escaped into a
+church, which I left by another door a quarter of an hour later.
+My fright saved me, for I knew the ferocity of the Provencals, and
+I took care not to reply a word to the storm of abuse which poured
+on me.  I believe that I was never in greater danger than on that
+day.
+
+Before I got back to my inn I was rejoined by the servant and the
+girl.
+
+"How could you lead me into such a dangerous position?" said I.
+"You must have known your mother was savage."
+
+"I hoped she would behave respectfully to you."
+
+"Be calm; don't weep any more.  Tell me how I can serve you."
+
+"Rather than return to that horrible house I was in yesterday I
+would throw myself into the sea."
+
+"Do you know of any respectable house where I can keep her?" said
+I to the man.
+
+He told me he did know a respectable individual who let furnished
+apartments.
+
+"Take me to it, then."
+
+The man was of an advanced age, and he had rooms to let on all the
+floors.
+
+"I only want a little nook," said the girl; and the old man took
+us to the highest story, and opened the door of a garret, saying,-
+
+"This closet is six francs a month, a month's rent to be paid in
+advance, and I may tell you that my door is always shut at ten
+o'clock, and that nobody can come and pass the night with you."
+
+The room held a bed with coarse sheets, two chairs, a little
+table, and a chest of drawers.
+
+"How much will you board this young woman for?" said I.
+
+He asked twenty sous, and two sous for the maid who would bring
+her meals and do her room.
+
+"That will do," said the girl, and she paid the month's rent and
+the day's board.  I left her telling her I would come back again.
+
+As I went down the stairs I asked the old man to shew me a room
+for myself.  He skewed me a very nice one at a Louis a month, and
+I paid in advance.  He then gave me a latch-key, that I might go
+and come when I liked.
+
+"If you wish to board here," said he, "I think I could give
+satisfaction."
+
+Having done this good work, I had my dinner by myself, and then
+went to a coffee-house where I found the amiable Knight of Malta
+who was playing.  He left the game as soon as he saw me, put the
+fistfull of gold he had won into his pocket, accosted me with the
+politeness natural to a Frenchman, and asked me how I had liked
+the lady who had given me my supper.  I told him what had
+happened, at which he laughed, and asked me to come and see his
+ballet-girl.  We found her under the hairdresser's hands, and she
+received me with the playful familiarity with which one greets an
+old acquaintance.  I did not think much of her, but I pretended to
+be immensely struck, with the idea of pleasing the good-natured
+knight.
+
+When the hairdresser left her, it was time for her to get ready
+for the theatre, and she dressed herself, without caring who was
+present.  The knight helped her to change her chemise, which she
+allowed him to do as a matter of course, though indeed she begged
+me to excuse her.
+
+As I owed her a compliment, I could think of nothing better than
+to tell her that though she had not offended me she had made me
+feel very uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't believe you," said she.
+
+"It's true all the same."
+
+She came up to me to verify the fact, and finding I had deceived
+her, she said half crossly,
+
+"You are a bad fellow."
+
+The women of Marseilles are undoubtedly the most profligate in
+France.  They not only pride themselves on never refusing, but
+also on being the first to propose.  This girl skewed me a
+repeater, for which she had got up a lottery at twelve francs a
+ticket.  She had ten tickets left; I took them all, and so
+delighted was she to touch my five Louis that she came and kissed
+me, and told the knight that her unfaithfulness to him rested only
+with me.
+
+"I am charmed to hear it," said the Maltese.  He asked me to sup
+with her, and I accepted the invitation, but the sole pleasure I
+had was looking at the knight at work.  He was far inferior to
+Dolci!
+
+I wished them good night, and went to the house where I had placed
+the poor girl.  The maid skewed me to my room, and I asked her if
+I might go to the garret.  She took the light, I followed her up,
+and Rosalie, as the poor girl was named, heard my voice and opened
+the door.  I told the maid to wait for me in my room, and I went
+in and sat down on the bed.
+
+"Are you contented, dear?" I said.
+
+"I am quite happy."
+
+"Then I hope you will be kind, and find room for me in your bed."
+
+"You may come if you like, but I must tell you that you will not
+find me a maid, as I have had one lover."
+
+"You told me a lie, then?"
+
+"Forgive me, I could not guess you would be my lover."
+
+"I forgive you willingly; all the more so as I am no great
+stickler for maidenheads."
+
+She was as gentle as a lamb, and allowed me to gaze on all those
+charms of which my hands and my lips disputed the possession; and
+the notion that I was master of all these treasures put fire in
+all my veins, but her submissive air distressed me.
+
+"How is it you do not partake my desires?" said I.
+
+"I dare not, lest you take me for a pretender."
+
+Artifice or studied coquetry might have prompted such an answer,
+but the real timidity and the frankness with which these words
+were uttered could not have been assumed.  Impatient to gain
+possession of her I took off my clothes, and on getting into bed
+to her I was astonished to find her a maid.
+
+"Why did you tell me you had a lover?" said I.  "I never heard of
+a girl telling a lie of that sort before."
+
+"All the same I did not tell a lie, but I am very glad that I seem
+as if I had done so."
+
+"Tell me all about it."
+
+"Certainly I will, for I want to win your confidence.  This is
+the story:
+
+"Two years ago my mother, though she was hot-tempered, still loved
+me.  I was a needle-woman, and earned from twenty to thirty sous a
+day.  Whatever I earned I gave my mother.  I had never had a
+lover, never thought of such a thing, and when my goodness was
+praised I felt inclined to laugh.  I had been brought up from a
+child never to look at young men when I met them in the street,
+and never to reply to them when they addressed any impudence to
+me.
+
+"Two months ago a fine enough looking young man, a native of
+Genoa, and a merchant in a small way, came to my mother to get her
+to wash some very fine cotton stockings which the sea-water had
+stained.  When he saw me he was very complimentary, but in an
+honest way.  I liked him, and, no doubt seeing it, he came and
+came again every evening.  My mother was always present at our
+interviews, and he looked at me and talked to me, but did not so
+much as ask to kiss my hand.  My mother was very pleased to notice
+that the young man liked me, and often scolded me because I was
+not polite enough to him.  In time he had to go to Genoa in a
+small ship which belonged to him, and which was laden with goods.
+He assured us that he would return again the next spring and
+declare his intentions.  He said he hoped he should find me as
+good as ever, and still without any lover.  This was enough; my
+mother looked upon him as my betrothed, and let us talk together
+at the door till midnight.  When he went I would shut the door and
+lie down beside my mother, who was always asleep.
+
+"Four or five days before his departure, he took my arm and got me
+to go with him to a place about fifty paces from the house to
+drink a glass of Muscat at a Greek's, who kept his tavern open all
+night.  We were only away for half an hour, and then it was that
+he first kissed me.  When I got home I found my mother awake, and
+told her all; it seemed so harmless to me.
+
+"Next day, excited by the recollection of what had happened the
+night before, I went with him again, and love began to gain
+ground.  We indulged in caresses which were no longer innocent, as
+we well knew.  However, we forgave each other, as we had abstained
+from the chief liberty.
+
+"The day after, my lover--as he had to journey in the night--took
+leave of my mother, and as soon as she was in bed I was not longer
+in granting what I desired as much as he.  We went to the Greek's,
+ate and drank, and our heated senses gained love's cause; we
+forgot our duty, and fancied our misdemeanour a triumph.
+
+"Afterwards we fell asleep, and when we awoke we saw our fault in
+the clear, cold light of day.  We parted sorrowful rather than
+rejoicing, and the reception my mother gave me was like that you
+witnessed this morning.  I assured her that marriage would take
+away the shame of my sin, and with this she took up a stick and
+would have done for me, if I had not taken to my heels, more from
+instinct than from any idea of what I was doing.
+
+"Once in the street I knew not where to turn, and taking refuge in
+a church I stayed there like one in a dream till noon.  Think of
+my position.  I was hungry, I had no refuge, nothing but the
+clothes I wore, nothing that would get me a morsel of bread.  A
+woman accosted me in the street.  I knew her and I also knew that
+she kept a servants' agency.  I asked her forthwith if she could
+get me a place.
+
+"'I had enquiries about a maid this morning,' said she, 'but it is
+for a gay woman, and you are pretty.  You would have a good deal
+of difficulty in remaining virtuous.'
+
+"'I can keep off the infection,' I answered, 'and in the position
+I am in I cannot pick and choose.'
+
+"She thereupon took me to the lady, who was delighted to see me,
+and still more delighted when I told her that I had never had
+anything to do with a man.  I have repented of this lie bitterly
+enough, for in the week I spent at that profligate woman's house I
+have had to endure the most humiliating insults that an honest
+girl ever suffered.  No sooner did the men who came to the house
+hear that I was a maid than they longed to slake their brutal lust
+upon me, offering me gold if I would submit to their caresses.  I
+refused and was reviled, but that was not all.  Five or six times
+every day I was obliged to remain a witness of the disgusting
+scenes enacted between my mistress and her customers, who, when I
+was compelled to light them about the house at night, overwhelmed
+me with insults, because I would not do them a disgusting service
+for a twelve-sous piece.  I could not bear this sort of life much
+longer, and I was thinking of drowning myself.  When you came you
+treated me so ignominiously that my resolve to die was
+strengthened, but you were so kind and polite as you went away
+that I fell in love with you directly, thinking that Providence
+must have sent you to snatch me away from the abyss.  I thought
+your fine presence might calm my mother and persuade her to take
+me back till my lover came to marry me.  I was undeceived, and I
+saw that she took me for a prostitute.  Now, if you like, I am
+altogether yours, and I renounce my lover of whom I am no longer
+worthy.  Take me as your maid, I will love you and you only; I
+will submit myself to you and do whatever you bid me."
+
+Whether it were weakness or virtue on my part, this tale of woe
+and a mother's too great severity drew tears from my eyes, and
+when she saw my emotion she wept profusely, for her heart was in
+need of some relief.
+
+"I think, my poor Rosalie, you have only one chemise."
+
+"Alas! that is all."
+
+Comfort yourself, my dear; all your wants shall be supplied
+tomorrow, and in the evening you shall sup with me in my room on
+the second floor.  I will take care of you."
+
+"You pity me, then?"
+
+"I fancy there is more love than pity in it."
+
+"Would to God it were so!"
+
+This "would to God," which came from the very depths of her soul,
+sent me away in a merry mood.  The servant who had been waiting
+for me for two hours, and was looking rather glum, relaxed when
+she saw the colour of a crown which I gave her by way of
+atonement.
+
+"Tell your master," said I, "that Rosalie will sup with me to-
+morrow; let us have a fasting dinner, but let it be a good one."
+
+I returned to my inn quite in love with Rosalie, and I
+congratulated myself on having at last heard a true tale from a
+pretty mouth.  She appeared to me so well disposed that her small
+failing seemed to make her shine the more.  I resolved never to
+abandon her, and I did so in all sincerity; was I not in love?
+
+After I had had my chocolate next morning I went out with a guide
+to the shops, where I got the necessary articles, paying a good
+but not an excessive price.  Rosalie was only fifteen, but with
+her figure, her well-formed breasts, and her rounded arms, she
+would have been taken for twenty.  Her shape was so imprinted on
+my brain that everything I got for her fitted as if she had been
+measured for it.  This shopping took up all the morning, and in
+the afternoon the man took her a small trunk containing two
+dresses, chemises, petticoats, handkerchiefs, stockings, gloves,
+caps, a pair of slippers, a fan, a work-bag, and a mantle.  I was
+pleased at giving her such a delightful surprise, and I longed for
+suppertime that I might enjoy the sight of her pleasure.
+
+The Knight of Malta came to dine with me without ceremony, and I
+was charmed to see him.  After we had dined he persuaded me to go
+to the theatre, as in consequence of the suspense of the
+subscription arrangements the boxes would be filled with all the
+quality in Marseilles.
+
+"There will be no loose women in the amphitheatre," said he, "as
+everybody has to pay."
+
+That decided me and I went.  He presented me to a lady with an
+excellent connection, who asked me to come and see her.  I excused
+myself on the plea that I was leaving so shortly.  Nevertheless
+she was very useful to me on my second visit to Marseilles.  Her
+name was Madame Audibert.
+
+I did not wait for the play to end, but went where love called me.
+I had a delightful surprise when I saw Rosalie; I should not have
+known her.  But I cannot resist the pleasure of recalling her
+picture as she stood before me then, despite the years that have
+rolled by since that happy moment.
+
+Rosalie was an enticing-looking brunette, above the middle height.
+Her face was a perfect oval, and exquisitely proportioned.  Two
+fine black eyes shed a soft and ravishing light around.  Her
+eyebrows were arched, and she had a wealth of hair, black and
+shining as ebony; her skin was while and lightly tinged with
+colour.  On her chin was a dimple, and her slightest smile
+summoned into being two other dimples, one on each cheek.  Her
+mouth was small, disclosing two rows of fairest orient pearls, and
+from her red lips flowed forth an indefinable sweetness.  The
+lower lip projected ever so lightly, and seemed designed to hold a
+kiss.  I have spoken of her arms, her breast, and her figure,
+which left nothing to be desired, but I must add to this catalogue
+of her charms, that her hand was exquisitely shaped, and that her
+foot was the smallest I have ever seen.  As to her other beauties,
+I will content myself with saying that they were in harmony with
+those I have described.
+
+To see her at her best, one had to see her smiling; and hitherto
+she had been sad or vexed--states of mind which detract from a
+woman's appearance.  But now sadness was gone, and gratitude and
+pleasure had taken its place.  I examined her closely, and felt
+proud, as I saw what a transformation I had effected; but I
+concealed my surprise, lest she should think I had formed an
+unfavourable impression of her.  I proceeded, therefore, to tell
+her that I should expose myself to ridicule if I attempted to keep
+a beauty like herself for a servant.
+
+"You shall be my mistress," I said, "and my servants shall respect
+you as if you were my wife."
+
+At this Rosalie, as if I had given her another being, began to try
+and express her gratitude for what I had done.  Her words, which
+passion made confused, increased my joy; here was no art nor
+deceit, but simple nature.
+
+There was no mirror in her garret, so she had dressed by her sense
+of touch, and I could see that she was afraid to stand up and look
+at herself in the mirror in my room.  I knew the weak spot in all
+women's hearts (which men are very wrong in considering as matter
+for reproach), and I encouraged her to admire herself, whereupon
+she could not restrain a smile of satisfaction.
+
+"I think I must be in disguise," said she, "for I have never seen
+myself so decked out before."
+
+She praised the tasteful simplicity of the dress I had chosen, but
+was vexed at the thought that her mother would still be
+displeased.
+
+"Think no more of your mother, dearest one.  You look like a lady
+of quality, and I shall be quite proud when the people at Genoa
+ask me if you are my daughter."
+
+"At Genoa?"
+
+"Yes, at Genoa.  Why do you blush?"
+
+"From surprise; perhaps I may see there one whom I have not yet
+forgotten."
+
+"Would you like to stay here better?"
+
+"No, no!  Love me and be sure that I love you and for your own
+sake, not from any thought of my own interests."
+
+"You are moved, my angel; let me wipe away your tears with
+kisses."
+
+She fell into my arms, and she relieved the various feelings of
+which her heart was full by weeping for some time.  I did not try
+to console her, for she had not grief; she wept as tender souls,
+and women, more especially, often will.  We had a delicious supper
+to which I did honour for two, for she ate nothing.  I asked her
+if she was so unfortunate as not to care for good food.
+
+"I have as good an appetite as anyone," she replied, "and an
+excellent digestion.  You shall see for yourself when I grow more
+accustomed to my sudden happiness."
+
+"At least you can drink; this wine is admirable.  If you prefer
+Greek muscat I will send for some.  It will remind you of your
+lover."
+
+"If you love me at all, I beg you will spare me that
+mortification."
+
+"You shall have no more mortification from me, I promise you.  It
+was only a joke, and I beg your pardon for it."
+
+"As I look upon you I feel in despair at not having known you
+first."
+
+"That feeling of yours, which wells forth from the depths of your
+open soul, is grand.  You are beautiful and good, for you only
+yielded to the voice of love with the prospect of becoming his
+wife; and when I think what you are to me I am in despair at not
+being sure you love me.  An evil genius whispers in my ear that
+you only bear with me because I had the happiness of helping you."
+
+"Indeed, that is an evil genius.  To be sure, if I had met you in
+the street I should not have fallen head over ears in love with
+you, like a wanton, but you would certainly have pleased me.  I am
+sure I love you, and not for what you have done for me; for if I
+were rich and you were poor, I would do anything in the world for
+you.  But I don't want it to be like that, for I had rather be
+your debtor than for you to be mine.  These are my real feelings,
+and you can guess the rest."
+
+We were still talking on the same subject when midnight struck,
+and my old landlord came and asked me if I were pleased.
+
+"I must thank you," I replied, "I am delighted.  Who cooked this
+delicious supper?"
+
+"My daughter."
+
+"She understands her craft; tell her I thought it excellent."
+
+"Yes, sir, but it is dear."
+
+"Not too dear for me.  You shall be pleased with me as I with you,
+and take care to have as good a supper to-morrow evening, as I
+hope the lady will be well enough to do justice to the products of
+your daughter's culinary skill."
+
+"Bed is a capital place to get an appetite.  Ah! it is sixty years
+since I have had anything to do with that sort of thing.  What are
+you laughing at, mademoiselle?"
+
+"At the delight with which you must recollect it."
+
+"You are right, it is a pleasant recollection; and thus I am
+always ready to forgive young folks the peccadilloes that love
+makes them commit."
+
+"You are a wise old man," said I, "everyone should sympathise with
+the tenderest of all our mortal follies."
+
+"If the old man is wise," said Rosalie, when he had left the room,
+"my mother must be very foolish."
+
+"Would you like me to take you to the play to-morrow?"
+
+"Pray do not.  I will come if you like, but it will vex me very
+much.  I don't want to walk out with you or to go to the theatre
+with you here.  Good heavens!  What would people say.  No,
+neither at Marseilles; but elsewhere, anything you please and with
+all my heart."
+
+"Very good, my dear, just as you please.  But look at your room;
+no more garret for you; and in three days we will start."
+
+"So soon?"
+
+"Yes; tell me to-morrow what you require for the journey, for I
+don't want you to lack for anything, and if you leave it all to me
+I might forget something which would vex me."
+
+"Well, I should like another cloak, a cloak with a lining, some
+boots, a night-cap, and a prayer-book."
+
+"You know how to read, do you?"
+
+"Certainly; and I can write fairly well."
+
+"I am glad to hear it.  Your asking me so freely for what you want
+is a true proof of your love; where confidence dwells not there is
+no love.  I will not forget anything, but your feet are so small
+that I should advise you to get your boots yourself."
+
+Our talk was so pleasant, and I experienced such delight in
+studying her disposition, that we did not go to bed till five
+o'clock.  In the arms of love and sleep we spent seven delicious
+hours, and when we rose at noon we were fast lovers.  She called
+me thou, talked of love and not of gratitude, and, grown more
+familiar with her new estate, laughed at her troubles.  She kissed
+me at every opportunity, called me her darling boy, her joy, and
+as the present moment is the only real thing in this life, I
+enjoyed her love, I was pleased with her caresses, and put away
+all ideas of the dreadful future, which has only one certainty--
+death, 'ultima linea rerum'.
+
+The second night was far sweeter than the first; she had made a
+good supper, and drunk well, though moderately; thus she was
+disposed to refine on her pleasure, and to deliver herself with
+greater ardour to all the voluptuous enjoyments which love
+inspires.
+
+I gave her a pretty watch and a gold shuttle for her to amuse
+herself with.
+
+"I wanted it," said she, "but I should never have dared to ask for
+it."
+
+I told her that this fear of my displeasure made me doubt once
+more whether she really loved me.  She threw herself into my arms,
+and promised that henceforth she would shew me the utmost
+confidence.
+
+I was pleased to educate this young girl, and I felt that when her
+mind had been developed she would be perfect.
+
+On the fourth day I warned her to hold herself in readiness to
+start at a moment's notice.  I had said nothing about my plans to
+Costa or Le Duc, but Rosalie knew that I had two servants, and I
+told her that I should often make them talk on the journey for the
+sake of the laughter their folly would afford me.
+
+"You, my dear," I had said to her, "must be very reserved with
+them, and not allow them to take the slightest liberty.  Give them
+your orders as a mistress, but without pride, and you will be
+obeyed and respected.  If they forget themselves in the slightest
+particular, tell me at once."
+
+I started from the hotel of the "Treize Cantons" with four post-
+horses, Le Duc and Costa sitting on the coachman's seat.  The
+guide, whom I had paid well for his services, took us to Rosalie's
+door.  I got out of the carriage, and after thanking the kindly
+old landlord, who was sorry to lose so good a boarder, I made her
+get in, sat down beside her, and ordered the postillions to go to
+Toulon, as I wished to see that fine port before returning to
+Italy.  We got to Toulon at five o'clock.
+
+My Rosalie behaved herself at supper like the mistress of a house
+accustomed to the best society.  I noticed that Le Duc as head man
+made Costa wait upon her, but I got over him by telling my
+sweetheart that he would have the honour of doing her hair, as he
+could do it as well as the best barber in Paris.  He swallowed the
+golden pill, and gave in with a good grace, and said, with a
+profound bow, that he hoped to give madam satisfaction.
+
+We went out next morning to see the port, and were shewn over the
+place by the commandant, whose acquaintance we made by a lucky
+chance.  He offered his arm to Rosalie, and treated her with the
+consideration she deserved for her appearance and the good sense
+of her questions.  The commandant accepted my invitation to
+dinner, at which Rosalie spoke to the point though not to excess,
+and received the polite compliments of our worthy guest with much
+grace.  In the afternoon he took us over the arsenal, and after
+having him to dinner could not refuse his invitation to supper.
+There was no difficulty about Rosalie; the commandant introduced
+her immediately to his wife, his daughter, and his son.  I was
+delighted to see that her manner with ladies even surpassed her
+manner with gentlemen.  She was one of Nature's own ladies.  The
+commandant's wife and daughter caressed her again and again, and
+she received their attentions with that modest sensibility which
+is the seal of a good education.
+
+They asked me to dinner the next day, but I was satisfied with
+what I had seen, so I took leave, intending to start on the
+morrow.
+
+When we got back to the inn I told her how pleased I was with her,
+and she threw her arms round my neck for joy.
+
+"I am always afraid," said she, "of being asked who I am."
+
+"You needn't be afraid, dearest; in France no gentleman or lady
+would think of asking such a question."
+
+"But if they did, what ought I to do?"
+
+"You should make use of an evasion."
+
+"What's an evasion?"
+
+"A way of escaping from a difficulty without satisfying
+impertinent curiosity."
+
+"Give me an example."
+
+"Well, if such a question were asked you, you might say, 'You had
+better ask this gentleman.'"
+
+"I see, the question is avoided; but is not that impolite?"
+
+"Yes; but not so impolite as to ask an embarrassing question."
+
+"And what would you say if the question was passed on to you?"
+
+"Well, my answer would vary in a ratio with the respect in which I
+held the questioner.  I would not tell the truth, but I should say
+something.  And I am glad to see you attentive to my lessons.
+Always ask questions, and you will always find me ready to answer,
+for I want to teach you.  And now let us to bed; we have to start
+for Antibes at an early hour, and love will reward you for the
+pleasure you have given me to-day."
+
+At Antibes I hired a felucca to take me to Genoa, and as I
+intended to return by the same route I had my carriage warehoused
+for a small monthly payment.  We started early with a good wind,
+but the sea becoming rough, and Rosalie being mortally afraid, I
+had the felucca rowed into Villafranca, where I engaged a carriage
+to take me to Nice.  The weather kept us back for three days, and
+I felt obliged to call on the commandant, an old officer named
+Peterson.
+
+He gave me an excellent reception, and after the usual compliments
+had passed, said,--
+
+"Do you know a Russian who calls himself Charles Ivanoff?"
+
+"I saw him once at Grenoble."
+
+"It is said that he has escaped from Siberia, and that he is the
+younger son of the Duke of Courland."
+
+"So I have heard, but I know no proof of his claim to the title."
+
+"He is at Genoa, where it is said a banker is to give him twenty
+thousand crowns.  In spite of that, no one would give him a sou
+here, so I sent him to Genoa at my own expense, to rid the place
+of him."
+
+I felt very glad that the Russian had gone away before my arrival.
+An officer named Ramini, who was staying at the same inn as
+myself, asked if I would mind taking charge of a packet which
+M. de St.  Pierre, the Spanish consul, had to send to the Marquis
+Grimaldi, at Genoa.  It was the nobleman I had just seen at Avignon,
+and I was pleased to execute the commission.  The same officer
+asked me whether I had ever seen a certain Madame Stuard.
+
+"She came here a fortnight ago with a man who calls himself her
+husband.  The poor devils hadn't a penny, and she, a great beauty,
+enchanted everybody, but would give no one a smile or a word."
+
+"I have both seen and know her," I answered.  "I furnished her
+with the means to come here.  How could she leave Nice without any
+money?"
+
+"That's just what no one can understand.  She went off in a
+carriage, and the landlord's bill was paid.  I was interested in
+the woman.  The Marquis Grimaldi told me that she had refused a
+hundred louis he offered her, and that a Venetian of his
+acquaintance had fared just as badly.  Perhaps that is you?"
+
+"It is, and I gave her some money despite my treatment."
+
+M. Peterson came to see me, and was enchanted with Rosalie's
+amiable manner.  This was another conquest for her, and I duly
+complimented her upon it.
+
+Nice is a terribly dull place, and strangers are tormented by the
+midges, who prefer them to the inhabitants.  However, I amused
+myself at a small bank at faro, which was held at a coffee-house,
+and at which Rosalie, whose play I directed, won a score of
+Piedmontese pistoles.  She put her little earnings into a purse,
+and told me she liked to have some money of her own.  I scolded
+her for not having told me so before, and reminded her of her
+promise.
+
+"I don't really want it," said she, "it's only my
+thoughtlessness."
+
+We soon made up our little quarrel.
+
+In such ways did I make this girl my own, in the hope that for the
+remnant of my days she would be mine, and so I should not be
+forced to fly from one lady to another.  But inexorable fate
+ordained it otherwise.
+
+The weather grew fine again, and we got on board once more, and
+the next day arrived at Genoa, which I had never seen before.  I
+put up at "St. Martin's Inn," and for decency's sake took two
+rooms, but they were adjoining one another.  The following day I
+sent the packet to M. Grimaldi, and a little later I left my card
+at his palace.
+
+My guide took me to a linen-draper's, and I bought some stuff for
+Rosalie, who was in want of linen.  She was very pleased with it.
+
+We were still at table when the Marquis Grimaldi was announced; he
+kissed me and thanked me for bringing the parcel.  His next remark
+referred to Madame Stuard.  I told him what had happened, and he
+laughed, saying that he was not quite sure what he would have done
+under the circumstances.
+
+I saw him looking at Rosalie attentively, and I told him she was
+as good as she was beautiful.
+
+"I want to find her a maid," I said, "a good seamstress, who could
+go out with her, and above all who could talk Italian to her, for
+I want her to learn the language that I may take her into society
+at Florence, Rome and Naples."
+
+"Don't deprive Genoa of the pleasure of entertaining her," said
+the marquis.  "I will introduce her under whatever name she
+pleases, and in my own house to begin with."
+
+"She has good reasons for preserving her incognito here."
+
+"Ah, I see!--Do you think of staying here long?"
+
+"A month, or thereabouts, and our pleasures will be limited to
+seeing the town and its surroundings and going to the theatre.  We
+shall also enjoy the pleasures of the table.  I hope to eat
+champignons every day, they are better here than anywhere else"
+
+"An excellent plan.  I couldn't suggest a better.  I am going to
+see what I can do in the way of getting you a maid, mademoiselle."
+
+"You sir?  How can I deserve such great kindness?"
+
+"My interest in you is the greater, as I think you come from
+Marseilles."
+
+Rosalie blushed.  She was not aware that she lisped, and that this
+betrayed her.  I extricated her from her confusion by telling the
+marquis his conjecture was well founded.
+
+I asked him how I could get the Journal de Savans, the Mercure de
+France, and other papers of the same description.  He promised to
+send me a man who would get me all that kind of thing.  He added
+that if I would allow him to send me some of his excellent
+chocolate he would come and breakfast with us.  I said that both
+gift and guest were vastly agreeable to me.
+
+As soon as he had gone Rosalie asked me to take her to a
+milliner's.
+
+"I want ribbons and other little things," said she, "but I should
+like to bargain for them and pay for them out of my own money,
+without your having anything to do with it."
+
+"Do whatever you like, my dear, and afterwards we will go to the
+play."
+
+The milliner to whom we went proved to be a Frenchwoman.  It was a
+charming sight to see Rosalie shopping.  She put on an important
+air, seemed to know all about it, ordered bonnets in the latest
+fashion, bargained, and contrived to spend five or six louis with
+great grandeur.  As we left the shop I told her that I had been
+taken for her footman, and I meant to be revenged.  So saying, I
+made her come into a jeweller's, where I bought her a necklace,
+ear-rings, and brooches in imitation diamonds, and without letting
+her say a word I paid the price and left the shop.
+
+"You have bought me some beautiful things," said she, "but you are
+too lavish with your money; if you had bargained you might have
+saved four louis at least."
+
+"Very likely, dearest, but I never was any hand at a bargain."
+
+I took her to the play, but as she did not understand the language
+she got dreadfully tired, and asked me to take her home at the end
+of the first act, which I did very willingly.  When we got in I
+found a box waiting for me from M. Grimaldi.  It proved to contain
+twenty-four pounds of chocolate.  Costa, who had boasted of his
+skill in making chocolate in the Spanish fashion, received orders
+to make us three cups in the morning.
+
+At nine o'clock the marquis arrived with a tradesman, who sold me
+some beautiful oriental materials.  I gave them to Rosalie to make
+two 'mezzaro' for herself.  The 'mezzaro' is a kind of hooded
+cloak worn by the Genoese women, as the 'cendal' is worn at
+Venice, and the 'mantilla' at Madrid.
+
+I thanked M. Grimaldi for the chocolate, which was excellent;
+Costa was quite proud of the praise the marquis gave him.  Le Duc
+came in to announce a woman, whose name I did not know.
+
+"It's the mother of the maid I have engaged," said M. Grimaldi.
+
+She came in, and I saw before me a well-dressed woman, followed by
+a girl from twenty to twenty-four years old, who pleased me at the
+first glance.  The mother thanked the marquis, and presented her
+daughter to Rosalie, enumerating her good qualities, and telling
+her that she would serve her well, and walk with her when she
+wished to go out.
+
+"My daughter," she added, "speaks French, and you will find her a
+good, faithful, and obliging girl."
+
+She ended by saying that her daughter had been in service lately
+with a lady, and that she would be obliged if she could have her
+meals by herself.
+
+The girl was named Veronique.  Rosalie told her that she was a
+good girl, and that the only way to be respected was to be
+respectable.  Veronique kissed her hand, the mother went away, and
+Rosalie took the girl into her room to begin her work.
+
+I did not forget to thank the marquis, for he had evidently chosen
+a maid more with a view to my likings than to those of my
+sweetheart.  I told him that I should not fail to call on him, and
+he replied that he would be happy to see me at any hour, and that
+I should easily find him at his casino at St. Pierre d'Arena,
+where he often spent the night.
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of MEMOIRES OF JACQUES CASANOVA
+ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH, Vol. 4a, DEPART SWITZERLAND
+by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
+
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