Volume I Part 12 (1/2)
This reserve gaveto do with her secret, and that Nanette was the rival of Angela Such a delightful conversation caused irls so well made for love
”It is very lucky,” I exclais of friendshi+p; otherwise it would be very hard to pass the night without giving way to the te upon you proofs of , that you would turn the brains of any , I pretended to be so the first to notice it, said, ”Go to bed without any cere room”
”I would be a very poor-spirited fellow indeed, if I agreed to this; let us talk; my sleepiness will soon pass off, but I a friends, and I will go into the next room If you are afraid of me, lock the door, but you would do s towards you”
”We cannot accept such an arrangement,” said Nanette, ”but let me persuade you; take this bed”
”I cannot sleep with my clothes on”
”Undress yourself; ill not look at you”
”I have no fear of it, but how could I find the heart to sleep, while on my account you are compelled to sit up?”
”Well,” said Marton, ”we can lie down, too, without undressing”
”If you shew me such distrust, you will offend me Tell me, Nanette, do you think I aive ood opinion; lie down near me in the bed, undressed, and rely on er upon you Besides, you are two against one, what can you fear? Will you not be free to get out of the bed in case I should not keep quiet? In short, unless you consent to give me this mark of your confidence in o to bed”
I said no ed a feords, whispering to each other, and Marton told o to bed, that they would follow me as soon as I was asleep Nanette made me the same promise, I turnedtheht, I went to bed I iood earnest, and only hen they ca round as if I wished to resume my slumbers, I remained very quiet until I could suppose them fast asleep; at all events, if they did not sleep, they were at liberty to pretend to do so Their backs were towards ht was out; therefore I could only act at rando onwhether she was Nanette or Marton I find her bent in two, and wrapped up in the only gar her e her defeat, and convince her that it is better to feign sleep and to letin concert with oal; and my efforts, croith the most complete success, leave athered those first-fruits to which our prejudiceenjoyed my manhood completely and for the first tie to the other sister I find heron her back like a person wrapped in profound and undisturbed slu ently gratifying her senses, and I ascertain the delightful fact that, like her sister, she is still in possession of her maidenhood As soon as a natural , I take iving way suddenly to the violence of her feelings, and tired of her assumed dissimulation, she warmly locks me in her arms at the very instant of the voluptuous crisis, smothers me with kisses, shares my raptures, and love blends our souls in theher to be Nanette, I whisper her name
”Yes, I am Nanette,” she answers; ”and I declare myself happy, as well as my sister, if you prove yourself true and faithful”
”Until death,we have done is the work of love, do not let us ever ed that she would give us a light; but Marton, always kind and obliging, got out of bed leaving us alone When I saw Nanette ina candle, with her eyes reproaching us with ingratitude because we did not speak to her, who, by accepting ed her sister to follow her exaet up, s,” said I, ”and swear to each other eternal affection”
When we had risen we perforood deal, and which gave a new i up in the simple costu those thousand trifling words which love alone can understand, and we again retired to our bed, where we spent aeach other mutual and oft-repeated proofs of our passionate ardour Nanette was the recipient of o to church, I had to hastenthe two lovely sisters that they had effectually extinguished whatever flaela I went home and slept soundly until dinner-time
M de Malipiero passed a remark upon my cheerful looks and the dark circles around my eyes, but I kept my own counsel, and I allowed hi day I paid a visit to Mada of the party, I re Nanette contrived to give me a letter and a small parcel The parcel contained a small lump of ith the stamp of a key, and the letter told me to have a key made, and to use it to enter the house whenever I wished to spend the night with theela had slept with the our adventures, and that, thanks to their uessed the real state of things, that they had not denied it, adding that it was all her fault, and that Angela, after abusing theain to darken their doors; but they did not care a jot
A few days afterwards our good fortune delivered us froela; she was taken to Vicenza by her father, who had reed to paint frescoes in some houses in that city Thanks to her absence, I foundsisters, ho no difficulty in entering the house with the key which I had speedily procured
Carnival was nearly over, when M Manzoni informed me one day that the celebrated Juliette wished to see retted much that I had ceased to visit her I felt curious as to what she had to say to me, and accompanied hi that she had heard of a large hall I had in ive a ball there, if I would give her the use of it I readily consented, and she handed me twenty-four sequins for the supper and for the band, undertaking to send people to place chandeliers in the hall and in my other rooovernment had placed his estates in chancery in consequence of his extravagant expenditure I nia of the king's order of knighthood, and was grand equerry to the eldest daughter of Louis XV, duchess of Parma, who, like all the French princesses, could not be reconciled to the climate of Italy
The ball took place, and went off splendidly All the guests belonged to Juliette's set, with the exception of Madaether in the roo the hall, and whom I had been permitted to introduce as persons of no consequence whatever
While the after-supperdanced Juliette took ot an a idea”