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told him that his wife would never have
associated with me on equal terms if I had not been introduced to her as
a married woman; that the deceit was an insult to all the company at the
country-house, which must be wiped out by his marrying me within the
week or by fighting a duel. M. de Nesle added that if he fell he would
be avenged by all the gentlemen who had been offended in the same
way. Casanova replied, laughing, that so far from fighting to escape
marrying me, he was ready to break a lance to get me. 'I love her,' he
said, 'and if she loves me I am quite ready to give her my hand. Be kind
enough,' he added, 'to prepare the way for me, and I will marry her
whenever you like.'
"M. de Nesle embraced him, and promised to see to everything; he
brought me the joyful news, and in a week all was over. M. de Nesle
gave us a splendid supper on our wedding-day, and since then I have
had the title of his wife. It is an empty title, however, for, despite the
ceremony and the fatal yes, I am no wife, for your brother is completely
impotent. I am an unhappy wretch, and it is all his fault, for he ought to
have known his own condition. He has deceived me horribly."
"But he was obliged to act as he did; he is more to be pitied than to be
blamed. I also pity you, but I think you are in the wrong, for after his
sleeping with you for a month without giving any proof of his manhood

you might have guessed the truth. Even if you had been a perfect
novice, M. de Sauci ought to have known what was the matter; he must
be aware that it is beyond the power of man to sleep beside a pretty
woman, and to press her naked body to his breast without becoming, in
spite of himself, in a state which would admit of no concealment; that
is, in case he were not impotent."
"All that seems very reasonable, but nevertheless neither of us thought
of it; your brother looks such a Hercules."
"There are two remedies open to you; you can either have your
marriage annulled, or you can take a lover; and I am sure that my
brother is too reasonable a man to offer any opposition to the latter
course."
"I am perfectly free, but I can neither avail myself of a divorce nor of a
lover; for the wretch treats me so kindly that I love him more and more,
which doubtless makes my misfortune harder to bear."
The poor woman was so unhappy that I should have been delighted to
console her, but it was out of the question. However, the mere telling of
her story had afforded her some solace, and after kissing her in such a
way as to convince her that I was not like my brother, I wished her
good night.
The next day I called on Madame Vanloo, who informed me that
Madame Blondel had charged her to thank me for having gone away,
while her husband wished me to know that he was sorry not to have
seen me to express his gratitude.
"He seems to have found his wife a maid, but that's no fault of mine;
and Manon Baletti is the only person he ought to be grateful to. They
tell me that he has a pretty baby, and that he lives at the Louvre, while
she has another house in the Rue Neuve-des- Petits-Champs."
"Yes, but he has supper with her every evening."
"It's an odd way of living."

"I assure you it answers capitally. Blondel regards his wife as his
mistress. He says that that keeps the flame of love alight, and that as he
never had a mistress worthy of being a wife, he is delighted to have a
wife worthy of being a mistress."
The next day I devoted entirely to Madame de Rumain, and we were
occupied with knotty questions till the evening. I left her well pleased.
The marriage of her daughter, Mdlle. Cotenfau, with M. de Polignac,
which took place five or six years later, was the result of our cabalistic
calculations.
The fair stocking-seller of the Rue des Prouveres, whom I had loved so
well, was no longer in Paris. She had gone off with a M. de Langlade,
and her husband was inconsolable. Camille was ill. Coralline had
become the titulary mistress of the Comte de la Marche, son of the
Prince of Conti, and the issue of this union was a son, whom I knew
twenty years later. He called himself the Chevalier de Montreal, and