“He shan’t dream of it.  He will not even know where I am taking him, for he must not think that I have been informed of his misdoings.  As soon as we be there, and the conversation becomes general, I shall leave the room, pretending to be going away.”

“When will you bring him?  I long to cover him with confusion.  I will make him tremble.  I am curious to hear how he will justify himself for such an offence.”

“I can’t say, but I think and hope that your presence will make him eloquent, as I should like to see your differences adjusted.”

At one o’clock the Abbe des Forges arrived, and she made me sit down to dinner with them.  This abbe was a pupil of the famous Bishop of Auxerre, who was still living.  I talked so well on the subject of grace, and made so many quotations from St. Augustine, that the abbe and the devotee took me for a zealous Jansenista character with which my dress and appearance did not at all correspond.  My sweetheart did not give me a single glance while the meal was going on, and thinking she had some motives I abstained from speaking to her.

After dinner, which, by the way, was a very good one, I promised the offended lady to bring her the culprit bound hand and foot next day, after the play was over.  To put her at her ease I said I should walk, as I was certain that he would not recognize the house in the dark.

As soon as I saw Tiretta, I began with a seriocomic air to reproach him for the dreadful crime he had committed on the body of a lady in every way virtuous and respectable, but the mad fellow began to laugh, and it would have been waste of time for me to try to stop him.

“What!” said he, “she has had the courage to tell you all?”

“You don’t deny the fact, then?”

“If she says it is so, I don’t think I can give her the lie, but I am ready to swear that I don’t know how the land lay.  In the position I was in it was impossible for me to say where I took up my dwelling.  However, I will quiet her indignation, as I shall come to the point quickly, and not let her wait.”

“You will ruin the business if you don’t take care; be as long as you can; she will like that best, and it will be to your interest.  Don’t hurry yourself, and never mind me, as I am sure to get on all right while you are changing anger into a softer passion.  Remember not to know that I am in the house, and if you only stay with her a short time (which I don’t think will be the case) take a coach and be off.  You know the least a pious woman like her can do will be to provide me with fire and company.  Don’t forget that she is well-born like yourself.  These women of quality are, no doubt, as immoral as any other women, since they are constructed of the same material, but they like to have their pride flattered by certain attentions.  She is rich, a devote, and, what is more, inclined to pleasure; strive to gain her friendship ’faciem ad faciem’, as the King of Prussia says.  You may, perhaps, make your fortune.”