“Very well, reverend sir, we will hear it, and you must say it for my intention.”

I put a silver ducat in his hand.

“It is what I am in the habit of giving,” I observed.

My generosity surprised him so much that he wanted to kiss my hand.  We proceeded towards the church, and I offered my arm to the niece who, not knowing whether she ought to accept it or not, said to me,

“Do you suppose that I cannot walk alone?”

“I have no such idea, but if I do not give you my arm, people will think me wanting in politeness.”

“Well, I will take it.  But now that I have your arm, what will people think?”

“Perhaps that we love each other and that we make a very nice couple.”

“And if anyone should inform your mistress that we are in love with each other, or even that you have given your arm to a young girl?”

“I have no mistress, and I shall have none in future, because I could not find a girl as pretty as you in all Venice.”

“I am very sorry for you, for we cannot go again to Venice; and even if we could, how could we remain there six months?  You said that six months were necessary to know a girl well.”

“I would willingly defray all your expenses.”

“Indeed?  Then say so to my uncle, and he will think it over, for I could not go alone.”

“In six months you would know me likewise.”

“Oh!  I know-you very well already.”

“Could you accept a man like me?”

“Why not?”

“And will you love me?”

“Yes, very much, when you are my husband.”

I looked at the young girl with astonishment.  She seemed to me a princess in the disguise of a peasant girl.  Her dress, made of ‘gros de Tours’ and all embroidered in gold, was very handsome, and cost certainly twice as much as the finest dress of a Venetian lady.  Her bracelets, matching the neckchain, completed her rich toilet.  She had the figure of a nymph, and the new fashion of wearing a mantle not having yet reached her village, I could see the most magnificent bosom, although her dress was fastened up to the neck.  The end of the richly-embroidered skirt did not go lower than the ankles, which allowed me to admire the neatest little foot and the lower part of an exquisitely moulded leg.  Her firm and easy walk, the natural freedom of all her movements, a charming look which seemed to say, “I am very glad that you think me pretty,” everything, in short, caused the ardent fire of amorous desires to circulate through my veins.  I could not conceive how such a lovely girl could have spent a fortnight in Venice without finding a man to marry or to deceive her.  I was particularly delighted with her simple, artless way of talking, which in the city might have been taken for silliness.

Absorbed in my thoughts, and having resolved in my own mind on rendering brilliant homage to her charms, I waited impatiently for the end of the mass.