“I am certain, my own beloved, that you told a story out of pure politeness, but you had guessed that I expected you to do so.  You have made our friend a splendid present in exchange for the one he made you when he did not object to his M——­ M——­ bestowing her heart upon you.  You possess that heart entirely, dearest, and you would possess it under all circumstances, but how sweet it is to flavour the pleasures of love with the charms of friendship!  I was sorry not to see you, but I knew that if you had come we would not have had much enjoyment; for our friend, notwithstanding all his wit, is not exempt from some natural prejudices.  As for C——­ C——­, her mind is now quite as free of them as our own, and I am glad she owes it to me.  You must feel thankful to me for having completed her education, and for rendering her in every way worthy of you.  I wish you had been hiding in the closet, where I am certain you would have spent some delightful hours.  On Wednesday next I shall be yours, and all alone with you in your casino in Venice; let me know whether you will be at the usual hour near the statue of the hero Colleoni.  In case you should be prevented, name any other day.”

I had to answer those two letters in the same spirit in which they had been written, and in spite of all the bitter feelings which were then raging in my heart, my answers were to be as sweet as honey.  I was in need of great courage, but I said to myself:  “George Dandin, tu las voulu!” I could not refuse to pay the penalty of my own deeds, and I have never been able to ascertain whether the shame I felt was what is called shamefacedness.  It is a problem which I leave to others.

In my letter to C——­ C——­ I had the courage, or the effrontery, to congratulate her, and to encourage her to imitate M——­ M——­, the best model, I said, I could propose to her.

I wrote to my nun that I would be punctual at the appointment near the statue, and amidst many false compliments, which ought to have betrayed the true state of my heart, I told her that I admired the perfect education she had given to C——­ C——­, but that I congratulated myself upon having escaped the torture I should have suffered in the mysterious observatory, for I felt that I could not have borne it.

On the Wednesday I was punctual at the rendezvous, and I had not to wait long for M——­ M——­, who came disguised in male attire.  “No theatre to-night,” she said to me; “let us go to the ‘ridotto’, to lose or double our money.”  She had six hundred sequins.  I had about one hundred.  Fortune turned her back upon us, and we lost all.  I expected that we would then leave that cutthroat place, but M——­ M——­, having left me for a minute, came back with three hundred sequins which had been given to her by her friend, whom she knew where to find.  That money given by love or by friendship brought her luck for a short time, and she soon won back all we had lost, but in our greediness or imprudence we continued to play, and finally we lost our last sequin.