“Yes, and from outraged religion, too.”

“Certainly, certainly.  That is the chief source of my grief, and I should have mentioned it if I had not feared you were not so strongly attached to religion as myself.”

“Nobody, God be praised! could be more strongly attached to religion than I, and nothing can ever unloose the ties which bind me to it:” 

“You will be grieved, then, to hear that I am destined to suffer eternal punishment, for I must and will be avenged.”

“Not so, madam, perish the thought, as I could not become your accomplice in such a design, and if you will not abandon it at least say nothing to me on the subject.  I will promise you to tell him nothing, although as he lives with me the sacred laws of hospitality oblige me to give him due warning.”

“I thought he lived with the Lambertini”

“He left her yesterday.  The connection between them was a criminal one, and I have drawn him back from the brink of the precipice.”

“You don’t mean to say so!”

“Yes, upon my word of honour:” 

“You astonish one.  This is very edifying.  I don’t wish the young man’s death, but you must confess he owes me some reparation.”

“He does indeed.  A charming Frenchwoman is not to be handled in the Italian manner without signal amends, but I can think of nothing at all commensurate with the offence.  There is only one plan, which I will endeavour to carry out if you will agree to it.”

“What is that?”

“I will put the guilty party in your power without his knowing what is to happen, and I will leave you alone, so that you can wreak all your wrath upon him, provided you will allow me to be, unknown to him, in the next room, as I shall regard myself as responsible for his safety.”

“I consent.  You will stay in this room, and he must be left in the other where I shall receive you, but take care he has no suspicion of your presence.”

“He shan’t dream of it.  He will not even know where I am taking him, for he must not think that I have been informed of his misdoings.  As soon as we be there, and the conversation becomes general, I shall leave the room, pretending to be going away.”

“When will you bring him?  I long to cover him with confusion.  I will make him tremble.  I am curious to hear how he will justify himself for such an offence.”

“I can’t say, but I think and hope that your presence will make him eloquent, as I should like to see your differences adjusted.”

At one o’clock the Abbe des Forges arrived, and she made me sit down to dinner with them.  This abbe was a pupil of the famous Bishop of Auxerre, who was still living.  I talked so well on the subject of grace, and made so many quotations from St. Augustine, that the abbe and the devotee took me for a zealous Jansenista character with which my dress and appearance did not at all correspond.  My sweetheart did not give me a single glance while the meal was going on, and thinking she had some motives I abstained from speaking to her.