“And prove it in every way?”

“I must enquire into your methods before I consent to that, for it is possible that what you would call a very efficacious method might strike me as quite useless.”

“I see you are going to make me sigh after you for a long time.”

“As long as I can.”

“And when you have no strength left?”

“I will surrender.  Does that satisfy you?”

“Certainly, but I shall exert all my strength to abate yours.”

“Do so; I shall like it.”

“And will you help me to succeed?”

“Perhaps.”

“Ah, dear marchioness; you need only speak to make a man happy.  You have made me really so, and I am leaving you full of ardour.”

On leaving this charming conversationalist I went to the theatre and then to the faro-table, where I saw the masquer who had won three hundred sequins the evening before.  This night he was very unlucky.  He had lost two thousand sequins, and in the course of the next hour his losses had doubled.  Canano threw down his cards and rose, saying, “That will do.”  The masquer left the table.  He was a Genoese named Spinola.

“The bank is prosperous,” I remarked to Canano.

“Yes,” he replied, “but it is not always so.  Pierrot was very lucky the other night.”

“You did not recognize me in the least?”

“No, I was so firmly persuaded that the beggar was you.  You know who he is?”

“I haven’t an idea.  I never saw him before that day.”  In this last particular I did not lie.

“It is said that they are Venetians, and that they went to Bergamo.”

“It may be so, but I know nothing about them.  I left the ball before they did.”

In the evening I supped with the countess, her husband, and Triulzi.  They were of the same opinion as Canano.  Triulzi said that I had let the cat out of the bag by giving the beggars handfuls of sequins.

“That is a mistake,” I answered.  “When the luck is in my favour I never refuse anyone who asks me for money, for I have a superstition that I should lose if I did.  I had won thirty pounds weight of gold, and I could afford to let fools talk.”

The next day I got the lottery ticket and took it to the marchioness.  I felt madly in love with her because I knew she was in love with me.  Neither of them were playing, and I spent two hours in their company, talking of love all the while and enjoying their conversation immensely, for they were exceedingly intelligent.  I left them with the conviction that if the cousin, and not Mdlle.  Q——­, had been thrown in my way, I should have fallen in love with her in just the same manner.