The next morning Righelini took me to see the lodging he had spoken to me about.  I liked it and took it on the spot, paying the first quarter in advance.  The house belonged to a widow with two daughters, the elder of whom had just been blooded.  Righelini was her doctor, and had treated her for nine months without success.  As he was going to pay her a visit I went in with him, and found myself in the presence of a fine waxen statue.  Surprise drew from me these words: 

“She is pretty, but the sculptor should give her some colour.”

On which the statue smiled in a manner which would have been charming if her lips had but been red.

“Her pallor,” said Righelini, “will not astonish you when I tell you she has just been blooded for the hundred and fourth time.”

I gave a very natural gesture of surprise.

This fine girl had attained the age of eighteen years without experiencing the monthly relief afforded by nature, the result being that she felt a deathly faintness three or four times a week, and the only relief was to open the vein.

“I want to send her to the country,” said the doctor, “where pure and wholesome air, and, above all, more exercise, will do her more good than all the drugs in the world.”

After I had been told that my bed should be made ready by the evening, I went away with Righelini, who told me that the only cure for the girl would be a good strong lover.

“But my dear doctor,” said I, “can’t you make your own prescription?”

“That would be too risky a game, for I might find myself compelled to marry her, and I hate marriage like the devil.”

Though I was no better inclined towards marriage than the doctor, I was too near the fire not to get burnt, and the reader will see in the next chapter how I performed the miraculous cure of bringing the colours of health into the cheeks of this pallid beauty.

CHAPTER XXV

The Fair Invalid I Cure Her—­A Plot Formed to Ruin Me—­What Happened at the House of the Young Countess Bonafede—­The Erberia—­Domiciliary Visit—­My Conversation with M. de Bragadin—­I Am Arrested by Order of the State Inquisitors.

After leaving Dr. Righelini I went to sup with M. de Bragadin, and gave the generous and worthy old man a happy evening.  This was always the case; I made him and his two good friends happy whenever I took meals with them.

Leaving them at an early hour, I went to my lodging and was greatly surprised to find my bedroom balcony occupied.  A young lady of an exquisite figure rose as soon as she saw me, and gracefully asked me pardon for the liberty she had taken.

“I am,” she said, “the statue you saw this morning.  We do not light the candles in the evening for fear of attracting the gnats, but when you want to go to bed we will shut the door and go away.  I beg to introduce you to my younger sister, my mother has gone to bed.”