“You might have concluded, then, that he was impotent; for unless he were made of stone, or had taken a vow of chastity, his conduct was inexplicable.”

“The fact is, that I had no means of knowing whether he was capable or incapable of giving me substantial proof of his love.”

“Why did you not ascertain his condition for yourself?”

“A feeling of foolish pride prevented me from putting him to the test.  I did not suspect the truth, but imagined reasons flattering to myself.  I thought that he loved me so truly that he would not do anything before I was his wife.  That idea prevented me humiliating myself by making him give me some positive proof of his powers.”

“That supposition would have been tenable, though highly improbable, if you had been an innocent young maid, but he knew perfectly well that your novitiate was long over.”

“Very true; but what can you expect of a woman impelled by love and vanity?”

“Your reasoning is excellent, but it comes rather late.”  “Well, at last we went back to Paris, your brother to his house, and I to mine, while he continued his courtship, and I could not understand what he meant by such strange behaviour.  M. de Sauci, who knew that nothing serious had taken place between us, tried in vain to solve the enigma.  ’No doubt he is afraid of getting you with child,’ he said, ’and of thus being obliged to marry you.’  I began to be of the same opinion, but I thought it a strange line for a man in love to take.

“M. de Nesle, an officer in the French Guards, who had a pretty wife I had met in the country, went to your brother’s to call on me.  Not finding me there he asked why we did not live together.  Your brother replied openly that our marriage had been a mere jest.  M. de Nesle then came to me to enquire if this were the truth, and when he heard that it was he asked me how I would like him to make Casanova marry me.  I answered that I should be delighted, and that was enough for him.  He went again to your brother, and told him that his wife would never have associated with me on equal terms if I had not been introduced to her as a married woman; that the deceit was an insult to all the company at the country-house, which must be wiped out by his marrying me within the week or by fighting a duel.  M. de Nesle added that if he fell he would be avenged by all the gentlemen who had been offended in the same way.  Casanova replied, laughing, that so far from fighting to escape marrying me, he was ready to break a lance to get me.  ‘I love her,’ he said, ’and if she loves me I am quite ready to give her my hand.  Be kind enough,’ he added, ’to prepare the way for me, and I will marry her whenever you like.’

“M. de Nesle embraced him, and promised to see to everything; he brought me the joyful news, and in a week all was over.  M. de Nesle gave us a splendid supper on our wedding-day, and since then I have had the title of his wife.  It is an empty title, however, for, despite the ceremony and the fatal yes, I am no wife, for your brother is completely impotent.  I am an unhappy wretch, and it is all his fault, for he ought to have known his own condition.  He has deceived me horribly.”