Volume I Part 65 (1/2)
After breakfast I had great difficulty in convincing the curate that e was the last one, but I found it easier to persuade him on our arrival in Treviso to remain for dinner and for supper at a small, unfrequented inn, as I took all the expense upon ly when I added that ie would be in readiness to convey him to P----, where he would arrive in an hour after a peasant journey byto hurry him on, except his wish to say
I ordered a fire and a good dinner, and the idea struckfor ive me the opportunity of a short intervieith his niece I proposed it to hio myself, as I did not wish to be known He undertook the co to oblige me
He left us, and I remained alone with Christine I spent an hour with her without trying to give her even a kiss, although I was dying to do so, but I prepared her heart to burn with the sa in ination of a young 'girl
The curate ca that it could not be pledged until the day after the in He had spoken to the cashi+er, who had stated that if I liked the bank would lend double the sureatly obligeyourself Now that it has been offered once by you, it ht by another person Of course I will pay all your expenses”
”I pro his niece with hi the dinner, and discovered fresh charht lose her confidence if I tried to obtain soo to work too quickly, and to contrive that the curate should take her again to Venice I thought that there only I could ive it the food it requires
”Reverend sir,” I said, ”let ain to Venice I undertake to defray all expenses, and to find an honest woman hom your Christine will be as safe as with her own mother I want to know her well in order to e is certain”
”Sir, I will bring my niece myself to Venice as soon as you inform me that you have found a worthy woman ho I kept looking at Christine, and I could see her smile with contentment
”My dear Christine,” I said, ”within a week I shall have arranged the affair In the meantime, I rite to you I hope that you have no objection to correspond with me”
”My uncle rite for ”
”What, my dear child! you wish to become the wife of a Venetian, and you cannot write”
”Is it then necessary to knorite in order to becoh, and although a girl can be a wife and a enerally adht to be able to write I wonder you never learned”
”There is no wonder in that, for not one girl in our village can do it
Ask my uncle”
”It is perfectly true, but there is not one who thinks of getting married in Venice, and as you wish for a Venetian husband you must learn”
”Certainly,” I said, ”and before you coh at you, if you could not write I see that it makes you sad, my dear, but it cannot be helped”
”I a in a week”
”I undertake,” said her uncle, ”to teach you in a fortnight, if you will only practice diligently You will then know enough to be able to ireat undertaking, but I accept it; I proin to-morrow”
After dinner, I advised the priest not to leave that evening, to rest during the night, and I observed that, by going away before day-break, he would reach P---- in good time, and feel all the better for it I , and when he saw that his niece was sleepy, he was easily persuaded to ree for the clergyht be lit for ood priest said that it was unnecessary, because there were two large beds in our room, that one would be for me and the other for him and his niece
”We need not undress,” he added, ”as we mean to leave very early, but you can take off your clothes, sir, because you are not going with us, and you will like to re”
”Oh!” remarked Christine, ”I must undress myself, otherwise I could not sleep, but I only want a few , but I was ah to wreck the chastity of a Xenocrates, would sleep naked with her uncle! True, he was old, devout, and without any of the ideas which erous, yet the priest was a ht to have known the danger he was exposing himself to My carnal-mindedness could not realize such a state of innocence But it was truly innocent, so much so that he did it openly, and did not suppose that anyone could see anything wrong in it