“To-day is the fourth; well, then, in four days.”

“That will be the eighth?”

“Exactly so.  We will go to your casino after the second ballet.  Give me all necessary particulars to enable us to find the house without enquiring from anyone.”

I sat down and I wrote down the most exact particulars to find the casino either by land or by water.  Delighted with the prospect of such a party of pleasure, I asked my mistress to go to bed, but I remarked to her that, being convalescent and having made a hearty supper, I should be very likely to pay my first homages to Morpheus.  Yielding to the circumstances, she set the alarum for ten o’clock, and we went to bed in the alcove.  As soon as we woke up, Love claimed our attention and he had no cause of complaint, but towards midnight we fell asleep, our lips fastened together, and we found ourselves in that position in the morning when we opened our eyes.  Although there was no time to lose, we could not make up our minds to part without making one more offering to Venus.

I remained in the casino after the departure of my divinity, and slept until noon.  As soon as I had dressed myself, I returned to Venice, and my first care was to give notice to my cook, so that the supper of the 8th of February should be worthy of the guests and worthy of me.

MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798

To Paris and prison, Volume 2d—­The False Nun

The rare unabridged London edition of 1894 translated by Arthur Machen to which has been added the chapters discovered by Arthur Symons.

THE FALSE NUN

CHAPTER XXI

Supper at My Casino With M. M. and M. de Bernis, the French Ambassador—­A Proposal from M. M.; I Accept It—­Consequences—­C.  C. is Unfaithful to Me, and I Cannot Complain

I felt highly pleased with the supper-party I had arranged with M——­ M——­, and I ought to have been happy.  Yet I was not so; but whence came the anxiety which was a torment to me?  Whence?  From my fatal habit of gambling.  That passion was rooted in me; to live and to play were to me two identical things, and as I could not hold the bank I would go and punt at the ridotto, where I lost my money morning and night.  That state of things made me miserable.  Perhaps someone will say to me: 

“Why did you play, when there was no need of it, when you were in want of nothing, when you had all the money you could wish to satisfy your fancies?”