Volume I Part 71 (2/2)
Thinking that his object was to pay me what he had lost, I told him that O'Neilan had taken his debt on himself, but he answered than he had only called for the purpose of begging of me a loan of six sequins on his note of hand, by which he would pledge his honour to repay ed that the ht remain between us
”I promise it,” I said to him, ”but do not break your word”
The next day I was ill, and the reader is aware of the nature of my illness I immediately placed myself under a proper course of diet, however unpleasant it was at e; but I kept to my system, and it cured me rapidly
Three or four days afterwards Captain O'Neilan called on hed, ht before that night?” he enquired
”Yes, my health was excellent”
”I aly place
I would have warned you if I had thought you had any intentions in that quarter”
”Did you know of the wo?”
”Zounds! Did I not? It is only a week since I paid a visit to the very saht before my visit”
”Then I have to thank you for the present she has bestowed upon me”
”Most likely; but it is only a trifle, and you can easily get cured if you care to take the trouble”
”What! Do you not try to cure yourself?”
”Faith, no It would be too ular diet, and what is the use of curing such a trifling inconvenience when I aht Ten tiot tired of it, and for the last two years I have resigned myself, and now I put up with it”
”I pity you, for a reat success in love”
”I do not care a fig for love; it requires cares which would bother ht inconvenience to which ere alluding, and to which I am used now”
”I am not of your opinion, for the amorous pleasure is insipid when love does not throw a little spice in it Do you think, for instance, that the ugly wretch I uard-room is worth what I now suffer on her account?”
”Of course not, and that is why I am sorry for you If I had known, I could have introduced you to so better”
”The very best in that line is not worth ht to be sacrificed only for love”
”Oh! you omen worthy of love? There are a few here; stop with us for so to prevent you fro conquests”
O'Neilan was only twenty-three years old; his father, as dead, had been a general, and the beautiful Countess Borsati was his sister He presented me to the Countess Zanardi Nerli, still h not to burn my incense before either of theuess the state ofman more addicted to debauchery than O'Neilan
I have often spent the night ra about with him, and I was amazed at his cynical boldness and ienerous, brave, and honourable If in those days young officers were often guilty of so much immorality, of so many vile actions, it was not so es which they enjoyed through custoence, or party spirit Here is an exa drunk rather freely, rides through the city at full speed A poor old wo the street has no time to avoid him, she falls, and her head is cut open by the horse's feet