“Can I believe you?”

“Yes, with all your heart.  But tell me if I may hope for your love?”

“I don’t know.  All I know at present is that I ought to hate you, for in the space of a quarter of an hour you have taught me what I thought I should never know till I was married.”

“Are you sorry?”

“I ought to be, although I feel that I have nothing more to learn on a matter which I never dared to think about.  But how is it that you have got so quiet?”

“Because we are talking reasonably and after the rapture love requires some repose.  But look at this!”

“What! again?  Is that the rest of the lesson?”

“It is the natural result of it.”

“How is it that you don’t frighten me now?”

“The soldier gets used to fire.”

“I see our fire is going out.”

With these words she took up a stick to poke the fire, and as she was stooping down in a favourable position my rash hand dared to approach the porch of the temple, and found the door closed in such sort that it would be necessary to break it open if one wished to enter the sanctuary.  She got up in a dignified way, and told me in a polite and feeling manner that she was a well-born girl and worthy of respect.  Pretending to be confused I made a thousand excuses, and I soon saw the amiable expression return to the face which it became so well.  I said that in spite of my repentance I was glad to know that she had never made another man happy.

“Believe me,” she said, “that if I make anyone happy it will be my husband, to whom I have given my hand and heart.”

I took her hand, which she abandoned to my rapturous kisses.  I had reached this pleasant stage in the proceedings when M. le Noir was announced, he having come to enquire what the Pope’s niece had to say to him.

M. le Noir, a man of a certain age and of a simple appearance, begged the company to remain seated.  The Lambertini introduced me to him, and he asked if I were the artist; but on being informed that I was his elder brother, he congratulated me on my lottery and the esteem in which M. du Vernai held me.  But what interested him most was the cousin whom the fair niece of the Pope introduced to him under his real name of Tiretta, thinking, doubtless, that his new title would not carry much weight with M. le Noir.  Taking up the discourse, I told him that the count was commanded to me by a lady whom I greatly esteemed, and that he had been obliged to leave his country for the present on account of an affair of honour.  The Lambertini added that she wished to accommodate him, but had not liked to do so till she had consulted M. le Noir.  “Madam,” said the worthy man, “you have sovereign power in your house, and I shall be delighted to see the count in your society.”

As M. le Noir spoke Italian very well, Tiretta left the table, and we sat down all four of us by the fire, where my fresh conquest had an opportunity of shewing her wit.  M. le Noir was a man of much intelligence and great experience.  He made her talk of the convent where she had been, and as soon as he knew her name he began to speak of her father, with whom he had been well acquainted.  He was a councillor of the Parliament of Rouen, and had enjoyed a great reputation during his lifetime.