My business was in reference to a carriage, for the one I had boasted of existed only in my imagination.  I went to the most fashionable coffee-house, and, as good luck would have it, heard that there was a travelling carriage for sale, which no one would buy because it was too expensive.  Two hundred sequins were asked for it, although it had but two seats and a bracket-stool for a third person.  It was just what I wanted.  I called at the place where it would be seen.  I found a very fine English carriage which could not have cost less than two hundred guineas.  Its noble proprietor was then at supper, so I sent him my name, requesting him not to dispose of his carriage until the next morning, and I went back to the hotel well pleased with my discovery.  At supper I arranged with the captain that we would not leave Cesena till after dinner on the following day, and the conversation was almost entirely a dialogue between Henriette and myself; it was my first talk with a French woman.  I thought this young creature more and more charming, yet I could not suppose her to be anything else but an adventurers, and I was astonished at discovering in her those noble and delicate feelings which denote a good education.  However, as such an idea would not have suited the views I had about her, I rejected it whenever it presented itself to my mind.  Whenever I tried to make her talk about the captain she would change the subject of conversation, or evade my insinuations with a tact and a shrewdness which astonished and delighted me at the same time, for everything she said bore the impress of grace and wit.  Yet she did not elude this question: 

“At least tell me, madam, whether the captain is your husband or your father.”

“Neither one nor the other,” she answered, with a smile.

That was enough for me, and in reality what more did I want to know?  The worthy captain had fallen asleep.  When he awoke I wished them both good night, and retired to my room with a heart full of love and a mind full of projects.  I saw that everything had taken a good turn, and I felt certain of success, for I was young, I enjoyed excellent health, I had money and plenty of daring.  I liked the affair all the better because it must come to a conclusion in a few days.

Early the next morning I called upon Count Dandini, the owner of the carriage, and as I passed a jeweller’s shop I bought a pair of gold bracelets in Venetian filigree, each five yards long and of rare fineness.  I intended them as a present for Javotte.

The moment Count Dandini saw me he recognized me.  He had seen me in Padua at the house of his father, who was professor of civil law at the time I was a student there.  I bought his carriage on condition that he would send it to me in good repair at one o’clock in the afternoon.