in everything, otherwise, he might guess that I have betrayed the secret.  It is especially in your conversation that you must be careful.  My friend possesses every virtue except the theological one called faith, and on that subject you can say anything you like.  You will be at liberty to talk literature, travels, politics, anything you please, and you need not refrain from anecdotes.  In fact you are certain of his approbation.

“Now, dearest, I have only this to say.  Do you feel disposed to allow yourself to be seen by another man while you are abandoning yourself to the sweet voluptuousness of your senses?  That doubt causes all my anxiety, and I entreat from you an answer, yes or no.  Do you understand how painful the doubt is for me?  I expect not to close my eyes throughout the night, and I shall not rest until I have your decision.  In case you should object to shew your tenderness in the presence of a third person, I will take whatever determination love may suggest to me.  But I hope you will consent, and even if you were not to perform the character of an ardent lover in a masterly manner, it would not be of any consequence.  I will let my friend believe that your love has not reached its apogee”

That letter certainly took me by surprise, but all things considered, thinking that my part was better than the one accepted by the lover, I laughed heartily at the proposal.  I confess, however, that I should not have laughed if I had not known the nature of the individual who was to be the witness of my amorous exploits.  Understanding all the anxiety of my friend, and wishing to allay it, I immediately wrote to her the following lines: 

“You wish me, heavenly creature, to answer you yes or no, and I, full of love for you, want my answer to reach you before noon, so that you may dine in perfect peace.

“I will spend the last night of the year with you, and I can assure you that the friend, to whom we will give a spectacle worthy of Paphos and Amathos, shall see or hear nothing likely to make him suppose that I am acquainted with his secret.  You may be certain that I will play my part not as a novice but as a master.  If it is man’s duty to be always the slave of his reason; if, as long as he has control over himself, he ought not to act without taking it for his guide, I cannot understand why a man should be ashamed to shew himself to a friend at the very moment that he is most favoured by love and nature.

“Yet I confess that you would have been wrong if you had confided the secret to me the first time, and that most likely I should then have refused to grant you that mark of my compliance, not because I loved you less then than I do now, but there are such strange tastes in nature that I might have imagined that your lover’s ruling taste was to enjoy the sight of an ardent and frantic couple in the midst of amorous connection, and in that case, conceiving an unfavourable opinion of you, vexation might have