“I suppose you mean our passing a whole night together as innocently as if we were brother and sister.  If she knows you as well as I do, she will indeed think it most wonderful.”

“In that case, you may tell her the contrary, if you like.”

“Nothing of the sort.  I hate falsehoods, and I will certainly never utter one in such a case as this; it would be very wrong.  I do not love you less on that account, my darling, although, during this long night, you have not condescended to give me the slightest proof of your love.”

“Believe me, dearest, I am sick from unhappiness.  I love you with my whole soul, but I am in such a situation that....”

“What! you are weeping, my love!  Oh!  I entreat you, spare my heart!  I am so sorry to have told you such a thing, but I can assure you I never meant to make you unhappy.  I am sure that in a quarter of an hour M——­ M——­ will be crying likewise.”

The alarum struck, and, having no longer any hope of seeing M——­ M——­ come to justify herself, I kissed C——­ C——.  I gave her the key of the casino, requesting her to return it for me to M——­ M——­, and my young friend having gone back to the convent, I put on my mask and left the casino.

CHAPTER XX

I Am in Danger of Perishing in the Lagunes—­Illness—­Letters from C. C. and M. M.—­The Quarrel is Made Up—­Meeting at the Casino of Muran I Learn the Name of M. M.’s Friend, and Consent to Give Him A Supper at My Casino in the Company of Our Common Mistress

The weather was fearful.  The wind was blowing fiercely, and it was bitterly cold.  When I reached the shore, I looked for a gondola, I called the gondoliers, but, in contravention to the police regulations, there was neither gondola nor gondolier.  What was I to do?  Dressed in light linen, I was hardly in a fit state to walk along the wharf for an hour in such weather.  I should most likely have gone back to the casino if I had had the key, but I was paying the penalty of the foolish spite which had made me give it up.  The wind almost carried me off my feet, and there was no house that I could enter to get a shelter.

I had in my pockets three hundred philippes that I had won in the evening, and a purse full of gold.  I had therefore every reason to fear the thieves of Muran—­a very dangerous class of cutthroats, determined murderers who enjoyed and abused a certain impunity, because they had some privileges granted to them by the Government on account of the services they rendered in the manufactories of looking-glasses and in the glassworks which are numerous on the island.  In order to prevent their emigration, the Government had granted them the freedom of Venice.  I dreaded meeting a pair of them, who would have stripped me of everything, at least.  I had not, by chance, with me the knife which all honest men must carry to defend their lives in my dear country.  I was truly in an unpleasant predicament.