“She would have beaten you, and would probably have appealed to the law to get rid of you.”

“But what will you do for me, if I let her go back to Venice without following her.”

“I will take you to France, and try to get you employed by some bishop.”

“Employed!  I was meant by nature to be employed by none but God.”

“You proud fool!  Marcoline rightly called you a whiner.  Who is your God?  How do you serve Him?  You are either a hypocrite or an idiot.  Do you think that you, a priest, serve God by decoying an innocent girl away from her home?  Do you serve Him by profaning the religion you do not even understand?  Unhappy fool! do you think that with no talent, no theological learning, and no eloquence, you can be a Protestant minister.  Take care never to come to my house, or I will have you expelled from Genoa.”

“Well, well, take me to Paris, and I will see what my brother Francis can do for me; his heart is not so hard as yours.”

“Very good! you shall go to Paris, and we will start from here in three or four days.  Eat and drink to your heart’s content, but remain indoors; I will let you know when we are going.  I shall have my niece, my secretary, and my valet with me.  We shall travel by sea.”

“The sea makes me sick.”

“That will purge away some of your bad humours.”

When I got home I told Marcoline what had passed between us.

“I hate him!” said she; “but I forgive him, since it is through him I know you.”

“And I forgive him, too, because unless it had been for him I should never have seen you.  But I love you, and I shall die unless you satisfy my desires.”

“Never; for I know I should be madly in love with you, and then you would leave me, and I should be miserable again.”

“I will never leave you.”

“If you will swear that, take me into France and make me all your own.  Here you must continue living with Annette; besides, I have got your niece to make love to.”

The pleasant part of the affair was that my niece was equally taken with her, and had begged me to let her take meals with us and sleep with her.  As I had a prospect of being at their lascivious play, I willingly consented, and henceforth she was always present at the table.  We enjoyed her company immensely, for she told us side-splitting tales which kept us at table till it was time to go to Rosalie’s, where my niece’s adorer was certain to be awaiting us.

The next day, which was Holy Thursday, Rosalie came with us to see the processions.  I had Rosalie and Marcoline with me, one on each arm, veiled in their mezzaros, and my niece was under the charge of her lover.  The day after we went to see the procession called at Genoa Caracce, and Marcoline pointed out my brother who kept hovering round us, though he pretended not to see us.  He was most carefully dressed, and the stupid fop seemed to think he was sure to find favour in Marcoline’s eyes, and make her regret having despised him; but he was woefully deceived, for Marcoline knew how to manage her mezzaro so well that, though he was both seen and laughed at, the poor devil could not be certain that she had noticed him at all, and in addition the sly girl held me so closely by the arm that he must have concluded we were very intimate.