“Tell me,” I added, “what I can do to make you happy; for I wish to possess you, but first to shew my deserts.”

“Make me happy, and I will yield to your desires, for I love you.”

“Tell me what I can do.”

“You can draw me out of the poverty and misery which overwhelm me.  I live with my mother, who is a good woman, but devout to the point of superstition; she will damn my soul in her efforts to save it.  She finds fault with my keeping myself clean, because I have to touch myself when I wash, and that might give rise to evil desires.

“If you had given me the money you made me win in the lottery as a simple alms she would have made me refuse it, because you might have had intentions.  She allows me to go by myself to mass because our confessor told her she might do so; but I dare not stay away a minute beyond the time, except on feast days, when I am allowed to pray in the church for two or three hours.  We can only meet here, but if you wish to soften my lot in life you can do so as follows: 

“A fine young man, who is a hairdresser, and bears an excellent character, saw me at Momolo’s a fortnight ago, and met me at the church door next day and gave me a letter.  He declared himself my lover, and said that if I could bring him a dowry of four hundred crowns, he could open a shop, furnish it, and marry me.

“‘I am poor,’ I answered, ’and I have only a hundred crowns in charity tickets, which my confessor keeps for me.’  Now I have two hundred crowns, for if I marry, my mother will willingly give me her share of the money you made us gain.  You can therefore make me happy by getting me tickets to the amount of two hundred crowns more.  Take the tickets to my confessor, who is a very good man and fond of me; he will not say anything to my mother about it.”

“I needn’t go about seeking for charity tickets, my angel.  I will take two hundred piastres to your confessor to-morrow, and you must manage the rest yourself.  Tell me his name, and to-morrow I will tell you what I have done, but not here, as the wind and the cold would be the death of me.  You can leave me to find out a room where we shall be at our ease, and without any danger of people suspecting that we have spent an hour together.  I will meet you at the church to-morrow at the same hour and when you see me follow me.”

Mariuccia told me her confessor’s name, and allowed me all the caresses possible in our uncomfortable position.  The kisses she gave me in return for mine left no doubt in my mind, as to her love for me.  As nine o’clock struck I left her, perishing with cold, but burning with desire; my only thought being where to find a room in which I might possess myself of the treasure the next day.

On leaving the ruined palace, instead of returning to the Piazza di Spagna I turned to the left and passed along a narrow and dirty street only inhabited by people of the lowest sort.  As I slowly walked along, a woman came out of her house and asked me politely if I were looking for anybody.