Paris and Holland | Page 6

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.
My sweetheart was above the ordinary height, her hair was a fine
golden colour, and her regular features, despite the brilliance of her
eyes, expressed candour and modesty. Her dress allowed me to follow
all the lines of her figure, and the eyes dwelt pleasantly on the beauty of
her form, and on the two spheres which seemed to lament their too
close confinement. Although M. le Noir said nothing of all this, it was
easy to see that in his own way he admired her perfections no less than

I. He left us at eight o'clock, and half an hour afterwards the fat aunt
went away followed by her charming niece and the pale man who had
come with them. I lost no time in taking leave with Tiretta, who
promised the Pope's niece to join her on the morrow, which he did.
Three or four days later I received at my office a letter from Mdlle. de
la Meure--the pretty niece. It ran as follows: "Madame, my aunt, my
late mother's sister, is a devotee, fond of gaming, rich, stingy, and
unjust. She does not like me, and not having succeeded in persuading
me to take the veil, she