She laughed and said,—­

“It may prove a happy accident for Victorine; it may make her fortune.”

A few years after the Count of Padua had her operated on, and made her fortune.  When I came back from Spain I found that she was with child, so that I could not exact the due reward for all the trouble I had taken with her.

Early in the morning on Maunday Thursday they told me that Moses and Leah wanted to see me.  I had not expected to see them, but I welcomed them warmly.  Throughout Holy Week the Jews dared not shew themselves in the streets of Turin, and I advised them to stay with me till the Saturday.  Moses began to try and get me to purchase a ring from him, and I judged from that that I should not have to press them very much.

“I can only buy this ring from Leah’s hands,” said I.

He grinned, thinking doubtless that I intended to make her a present of it, but I was resolved to disappoint him.  I gave them a magnificent dinner and supper, and in the evening they were shewn a double-bedded room not far from mine.  I might have put them in different rooms, and Leah in a room adjoining mine, which would have facilitated any nocturnal excursions; but after all I had done for her I was resolved to owe nothing to a surprise; she should come of herself.

The next day Moses (who noticed that I had not yet bought the ring) was obliged to go out on business, and asked for the loan of my carriage for the whole day, telling me that he would come for his daughter in the evening.  I had the horses harnessed, and when he was gone I bought the ring for six hundred sequins, but on my own terms.  I was in my own house, and Leah could not deceive me.  As soon as the father was safely out of the way I possessed myself of the daughter.  She proved a docile and amorous subject the whole day.  I had reduced her to a state of nature, and though her body was as perfect as can well be imagined I used it and abused it in every way imaginable.  In the evening her father found her looking rather tired, but he seemed as pleased as I was.  Leah was not quite so well satisfied, for till the moment of their departure she was expecting me to give her the ring, but I contented myself with saying that I should like to reserve myself the pleasure of taking it to her.

On Easter Monday a man brought me a note summoning me to appear at the police office.

CHAPTER XII

My Victory Over the Deputy Chief of Police—­My Departure—­Chamberi—­Desarmoises’s Daughter—­M.  Morin—­M * * * M * * *—­At Aix—­The Young Boarder—­Lyons—­Paris

This citation, which did not promise to lead to anything agreeable, surprised and displeased me exceedingly.  However, I could not avoid it, so I drove to the office of the deputy-superintendent of police.  I found him sitting at a long table, surrounded by about a score of people in a standing posture.  He was a man of sixty, hideously ugly, his enormous nose half destroyed by an ulcer hidden by a large black silk plaster, his mouth of huge dimensions, his lips thick, with small green eyes and eyebrows which had partly turned white.  As soon as this disgusting fellow saw me, he began,—­