Volume I Part 59 (1/2)
”Never mind The sooner you dishonour yourself, the more you will save, for you will always be compelled to accept your dishonour whenever you find yourself utterly unable to pay your losses It is therefore more prudent not to wait until then”
”It is much better still to avoid that fatal i otherwise than with money in hand”
”No doubt of it, for then you will save both your honour and your purse
But, as you are fond of games of chance, I advise you never to punt
Make the bank, and the advantage e”
”As slight as you please, but it will be on your side, and when the game is over you will find yourself a winner and not a loser The punter is excited, the banker is caluess,'
while the first says, 'I bet I can guess' Which is the fool, and which is the wise man? The question is easily answered I adjure you to be prudent, but if you should punt and win, recollect that you are only an idiot if at the end you lose”
”Why an idiot? Fortune is very fickle”
”It must necessarily be so; it is a natural consequence Leave off playing, believe , even if you should, at that roat”
I had read Plato, and I was astonished at finding a man who could reason like Socrates
The next day, Zawoiski called on me very early to tell me that I had been expected to supper, and that Count Rinaldi had praisedmy debts of honour I did not think it necessary to undeceive hiain to Count Rinaldi's, whom I saw sixteen years afterwards in Milan As to Zawoiski, I did not tell him the story till I met him in Carlsbad, old and deaf, forty years later
Three or four ht me another of his h Zawoiski, with a French from the Venetian Government the appointment of inspector of the armies of the Republic
The senate appointed, and I presented him to my protector, who pro to relate prevented hi his proe a few debts, and I begged M de Bragadin to give them to me
”Why, my dear son, do you not ask M de l'Abbadie to render you that service?”
”I should not dare to do so, dear father”
”Try hilad to lend you that sum”
”I doubt it, but I will try”
I called upon L'Abbadie on the following day, and after a short exchange of compliments I told him the service I expected from his friendshi+p
He excused hi his refusal in that sea of commonplaces which people are sure to repeat when they cannot or will not oblige a friend Zawoiski caether I hurried at once to M de Bragadin, and told him my want of success He ence
It just happened that it was the very day on which the appointht before the senate I went out to attend to ht to say to ht I went to bed without seeingI said in his presence that I intended to call upon L'Abbadie to congratulate him upon his appointment
”You may spare yourself that trouble; the senate has rejected his noo L'Abbadie felt sure of his success”