When I returned home, I told M. de Bragadin of the expected arrival of the father of my charming C——­ C——­, and the kind old man wrote to him immediately in my presence.  He requested him to name at what time he might call on him on important business.  I asked M. de Bragadin not to send his letter until the following day.

The reader can very well guess that C——­ C——­ had not to wait for me long after midnight.  I gained admittance without any difficulty, and I found my darling, who received me with open arms.

“You have nothing to fear,” she said to me; “my father has arrived in excellent health, and everyone in the house is fast asleep.”

“Except Love,” I answered, “which is now inviting us to enjoy ourselves.  Love will protect us, dearest, and to-morrow your father will receive a letter from my worthy protector.”

At those words C——­ C——­ shuddered.  It was a presentiment of the future.

She said to me,

“My father thinks of me now as if I were nothing but a child; but his eyes are going to be opened respecting me; he will examine my conduct, and God knows what will happen!  Now, we are happy, even more than we were during our visits to Zuecca, for we can see each other every night without restraint.  But what will my father do when he hears that I have a lover?”

“What can he do?  If he refuses me your hand, I will carry you off, and the patriarch would certainly marry us.  We shall be one another’s for life”

“It is my most ardent wish, and to realize it I am ready to do anything; but, dearest, I know my father.”

We remained two hours together, thinking less of our pleasures than of our sorrow; I went away promising to see her again the next night.  The whole of the morning passed off very heavily for me, and at noon M. de Bragadin informed me that he had sent his letter to the father, who had answered that he would call himself on the following day to ascertain M. de Bragadin’s wishes.  At midnight I saw my beloved mistress again, and I gave her an account of all that had transpired.  C——­ C——­ told me that the message of the senator had greatly puzzled her father, because, as he had never had any intercourse with that nobleman, he could not imagine what he wanted with him.  Uncertainty, a sort of anxious dread, and a confused hope, rendered our enjoyment much less lively during the two hours which we spent together.  I had no doubt that M. Ch.  C——­ the father of my young friend, would ’go home immediately after his interview with M. de Bragadin, that he would ask his daughter a great many questions, and I feared lest C——­ C——­, in her trouble and confusion, should betray herself.  She felt herself that it might be so, and I could see how painfully anxious she was.  I was extremely uneasy myself, and I suffered much because, not knowing how her father would look at the matter, I could not give her any advice.  As a matter of course, it