“If you mean to be cruel,” I added, “pray say so candidly.”

“I must ask you to tell me what sort of a woman you take me for?”

“For a very charming one, whether a princess or a maid of low degree.  Therefore, I hope that you will give me, this very day, some marks of your kindness, or I must part with you immediately after dinner.”

“You will do as you please; but I trust that after dinner you will have changed your opinion and your language, for your way of speaking is not pleasant.  It seems to me that, before venturing upon such an explanation, it is necessary to know one another.  Do you not think so?”

“Yes, I do; but I am afraid of being deceived.”

“How very strange!  And that fear makes you begin by what ought to be the end?”

“I only beg to-day for one encouraging word.  Give it to me and I will at once be modest, obedient and discreet.”

“Pray calm yourself.”

We found the officer waiting for us before the door of “The Savage,” and went upstairs.  The moment we were in the room, she took off her mask, and I thought her more beautiful than the day before.  I wanted only to ascertain, for the sake of form and etiquette, whether the officer was her husband, her lover, a relative or a protector, because, used as I was to gallant adventures, I wished to know the nature of the one in which I was embarking.

We sat down to dinner, and the manners of the gentleman and of the lady made it necessary for me to be careful.  It was to him that I offered my box, and it was accepted; but as I had none, I went out after dinner under pretence of some engagement, in order to get one at the opera-buffa, where Petrici and Lasqui were then the shining stars.  After the opera I gave them a good supper at an inn, and I took them to their house in my gondola.  Thanks to the darkness of the night, I obtained from the pretty woman all the favours which can be granted by the side of a third person who has to be treated with caution.  As we parted company, the officer said,

“You shall hear from me to-morrow.”

“Where, and how?”

“Never mind that.”

The next morning the servant announced an officer; it was my man.  After we had exchanged the usual compliments, after I had thanked him for the honour he had done me the day before, I asked him to tell me his name.  He answered me in the following manner, speaking with great fluency, but without looking at me: 

“My name is P——­ C——.  My father is rich, and enjoys great consideration at the exchange; but we are not on friendly terms at present.  I reside in St. Mark’s Square.  The lady you saw with me was a Mdlle.  O——­; she is the wife of the broker C——­, and her sister married the patrician P——­ M——.  But Madame C——­ is at variance with her husband on my account, as she is the cause of my quarrel with my father.