“An abbe jealous?”

“Why not?  He never allows her to go out except on Sundays to attend the first mass at the Church of Santa Maria Mater Domini, close by his dwelling.  He did not object to her coming here, because he knew that we never had any visitors, and very likely he has heard through the servant of your being here every evening.”

A great enemy to all jealous persons, and a greater friend to my amorous fancies, I wrote to the young girl that, if she would leave her cousin for me, I would give her a house in which she should be the mistress, and that I would surround her with good society and with every luxury to be found in Venice.  I added that I would be in the church on the following Sunday to receive her answer.

I did not forget my appointment, and her answer was that the abbe being her tyrant, she would consider herself happy to escape out of his clutches, but that she could not make up her mind to follow me unless I consented to marry her.  She concluded her letter by saying that, in case I entertained honest intentions towards her, I had only to speak to her mother, Jeanne Marchetti, who resided in Lusia, a city thirty miles distant from Venice.

This letter piqued my curiosity, and I even imagined that she had written it in concert with the abbe.  Thinking that they wanted to dupe me, and besides, finding the proposal of marriage ridiculous, I determined on having my revenge.  But I wanted to get to the bottom of it, and I made up my mind to see the girl’s mother.  She felt honoured by my visit, and greatly pleased when, after I had shewn her her daughter’s letter, I told her that I wished to marry her, but that I should never think of it as long as she resided with the abbe.

“That abbe,” she said, “is a distant relative.  He used to live alone in his house in Venice, and two years ago he told me that he was in want of a housekeeper.  He asked me to let my daughter go to him in that capacity, assuring me that in Venice she would have good opportunities of getting married.  He offered to give me a deed in writing stating that, on the day of her marriage, he would give her all his furniture valued at about one thousand ducats, and the inheritance of a small estate, bringing one hundred ducats a year, which lie possesses here.  It seemed to me a good bargain, and, my daughter being pleased with the offer, I accepted.  He gave me the deed duly drawn by a notary, and my daughter went with him.  I know that he makes a regular slave of her, but she chose to go.  Nevertheless, I need not tell you that my most ardent wish is to see her married, for, as long as a girl is without a husband, she is too much exposed to temptation, and the poor mother cannot rest in peace.”

“Then come to Venice with me.  You will take your daughter out of the abbe’s house, and I will make her my wife.  Unless that is done I cannot marry her, for I should dishonour myself if I received my wife from his hands.”