The False Nun | Page 4

French
Ambassador--A Proposal from M. M.; I Accept It--Consequences-- C.
C. is Unfaithful to Me, and I Cannot Complain

I felt highly pleased with the supper-party I had arranged with M----
M----, and I ought to have been happy. Yet I was not so; but whence
came the anxiety which was a torment to me? Whence? From my fatal
habit of gambling. That passion was rooted in me; to live and to play
were to me two identical things, and as I could not hold the bank I
would go and punt at the ridotto, where I lost my money morning and
night. That state of things made me miserable. Perhaps someone will
say to me:
"Why did you play, when there was no need of it, when you were in
want of nothing, when you had all the money you could wish to satisfy
your fancies?"
That would be a troublesome question if I had not made it a law to tell
the truth. Well, then, dear inquisitive reader, if I played with almost the
certainty of losing, although no one, perhaps, was more sensible than I
was to the losses made in gambling, it is because I had in me the evil
spirit of avarice; it is because I loved prodigality, and because my heart
bled when I found myself compelled to spend any money that I had not
won at the gaming-table. It is an ugly vice, dear reader, I do not deny it.
However, all I can say is that, during the four days previous to the
supper, I lost all the gold won for me by M---- M----
On the anxiously-expected day I went to my casino, where at the
appointed hour M---- M---- came with her friend, whom she introduced
to me as soon as he had taken off his mask.
"I had an ardent wish, sir," said M. de Bernis to me, "to renew
acquaintance with you, since I heard from madame that we had known
each other in Paris."
With these words he looked at me attentively, as people will do when
they are trying to recollect a person whom they have lost sight of. I
then told him that we had never spoken to one another, and that he had
not seen enough of me to recollect my features now.
"I had the honour," I added, "to dine with your excellency at M. de
Mocenigo's house, but you talked all the time with Marshal Keith, the

Prussian ambassador, and I was not fortunate enough to attract your
attention. As you were on the point of leaving Paris to return to Venice,
you went away almost immediately after dinner, and I have never had
the honour of seeing you since that time."
"Now I recollect you," he answered, "and I remember asking whether
you were not the secretary of the embassy. But from this day we shall
not forget each other again, for the mysteries which unite us are of a
nature likely to establish a lasting intimacy between us."
The amiable couple were not long before they felt thoroughly at ease,
and we sat down to supper, of which, of course, I did the honours. The
ambassador, a fine connoisseur in wines, found mine excellent, and was
delighted to hear that I had them from Count Algarotti, who was
reputed as having the best cellar in Venice.
My supper was delicate and abundant, and my manners towards my
handsome guests were those of a private individual receiving his
sovereign and his mistress. I saw that M---- M---- was charmed with
the respect with which I treated her, and with my conversation, which
evidently interested the ambassador highly. The serious character of a
first meeting did not prevent the utterance of witty jests, for in that
respect M. de Bernis was a true Frenchman. I have travelled much, I
have deeply studied men, individually and in a body, but I have never
met with true sociability except in Frenchmen; they alone know how to
jest, and it is rare, delicate, refined jesting, which animates
conversation and makes society charming.
During our delightful supper wit was never wanting, and the amiable
M---- M---- led the conversation to the romantic combination which
had given her occasion to know me. Naturally, she proceeded to speak
of my passion for C---- C----, and she gave such an interesting
description of that young girl that the ambassador listened with as
much attention as if he had never seen the object of it. But that was his
part, for he was not aware that I had been informed of his having
witnessed from his hiding-place my silly interview with C---- C----. He
told M---- M---- that he would have been delighted if she had brought
her young friend to sup