Volume I Part 79 (1/2)
”The proposal was, after all, rather agreeable to retted my inability to make her understand that, if she was followed by anyone from Rome, and if that person wanted to take her back, I was not in a position to defend her against violence I was also sorry that, with our e spoken by each of us, we had no opportunity of conversation, for I should have been greatly pleased to hear her adventures, which, I think, uess that I have no idea of who she can be I only know that she calls herself Henriette, that she entle as a turtledove, that she has evidently received a good education, and that she enjoys good health
She is witty and courageous, as we have both seen, I in Rome and you in Cesena at General Spada's table If she would tell you her history, and allow you to translate it for me in Latin she would indeed please me much, for I arieve me to part froive her the thirty sequins I received froive her more substantial proofs of ed to you if you will explain it all to her in French”
I asked her whether she would feel offended if I gave her an exact translation She assured me that, on the contrary, she wished me to speak openly, and I told her literally what the captain had related to ht shade of-sha, Henriette confiredthe adventures of her life
”Be good enough to inform him,” she added, ”that the same principle which forbids me to utter a falsehood, does not allow me to tell the truth As for the thirty sequins which he intends to give rievethem upon e wherever I may please, to make no enquiries whatever about reat kindness toto have ever known me”
As she uttered the last words of this short speech, which she had delivered very seriously and with a mixture of modesty and resolution, she kissed her elderly friend in a ratitude rather than love The captain, who did not knohy she was kissing hirieved when I translated what Henriette had said He begged me to tell her that, if he was to obey her with an easy conscience, heshe required in Parma
”You can assure him,” she answered, ”that he need not entertain any anxiety about me”
This conversation had htful and silent, until, feeling the situation to be painful, I rose, wishi+ng thereat excitement
As soon as I found s of love, surprise, and uncertainty, I began to give vent to s in a kind of soliloquy, as I always do when I a is not, in those cases, enough for me; I must speak aloud, and I throw so ues that I forget I aether
”Who can she be,” I said, speaking to the walls; ”this girl who sees under the veil of the most cynical libertinism? She says that in Parma she wishes to remain perfectly unknown, her own mistress, and I cannot, of course, flatter myself that she will not place me under the same restrictions as the captain to whom she has already abandoned herself Goodbye to my expectations, to my money, and my illusions! But who is she--what is she? She must have either a lover or a husband in Par to a respectable family; or, perhaps, thanks to a boundless love for debauchery and to her confidence in her own charradation at defiance, and to try to enslave some wealthy nobleman! But that would be the plan of a mad woman or of a person reduced to utter despair, and it does not see True, but she refused, as if she had been provided with all she needed, the kind assistance of a ht to offer it, and fro, since she has not been asha to do Does she think that it is less shameful for a woman to abandon herself to the desires of a man unknown and unloved than to receive a present fro herself in the street, entirely destitute in the e she cannot even speak? Perhaps she thinks that such conduct will justify the 'faux pas' of which she has been guilty with the captain, and give him to understand that she had abandoned herself to hi froht to be quite certain that the captain does not entertain any other idea; he shews himself so reasonable that it is impossible to suppose that he ever ad inspired her with a violent passion, because she had seen hiht possibly be right, and feel herself justified in her conduct towards the captain, but it is not the saence she must be aware that I would not have travelled with them if she had been indifferent to me, and she must know that there is but one way in which she can obtain my pardon She may be endoith many virtues, but she has not the only one which could preventthe rehich every man expects to receive at the hands of the woman he loves If she wants to assume prudish manners towards me and to make a dupe of me, I am bound in honour to shew her how ue, which had ry, Ibefore our departure
”I shall ask her,” said I to rant ranted to her old captain, and if I e will be to shew her a cold and profound contempt until our arrival in Parma”
I felt sure that she could not refuse me some marks of real or of pretended affection, unless she wished toto her, and, knowing that her modesty would only be all pretence, I was determined not to be a mere toy in her hands
As for the captain, I felt certain, frory with me if I risked a declaration, for as a sensible man he could only assu, and with hts were too completely absorbed by Henriette for her not to haunt ht was so , I looked for her in hts of that night that, if my door had not been fastened with a bolt, I should have believed that she had left arian
When I ake I found that the happy dreaht had turned my love for the lovely creature into a perfect amorous frenzy, and it could not be other wise Let the reader iue and starvation; he succumbs to sleep, that most imperative of all human wants, but in his dream he finds himself before a table covered with every delicacy; ill then happen? Why, a very natural result His appetite, ive hier
I dressedsure of the possession of the wo our journey
”If I do not succeed,” I said to o one step further”
But, in order not to offend against propriety, and not to deserve the reproaches of an honest man, I felt that it was my duty to have an explanation with the captain in the first place
I fancy that I hear one of those sensible, cale of what is called a youth without store has forced to become virtuous, exclaim,
”Can anyone attach so e has cal therown old, and my memory has kept all the freshness of youth; and far fro a mere trifle, my only sorrow, dear reader, arises from the fact that I have not the power to practise, to the day of my death, that which has been the principal affair of my life!
When I was ready I repaired to the cha co compliments I told the officer that I was deeply in love with Henriette, and I asked hi to obtain her as s you,” I added, ”to leave her in Parma and not to take any further notice of her, must be that she hopes to meet some lover of hers there Let me have half an hour's conversation with her, and I flatter myself I can persuade her to sacrifice that lover for o with her to Par me a receipt, so that I can claim it whenever I please”
”As soon as breakfast is over,” said the excellent o and visit the institute, and leave you alone with Henriette I hope you hted to see her under your protection when I part with her Should she persist in her first resolution, I could easily find a 'vetturino' here, and you could keep your carriage I thank you for your proposal, and it will grieveacco myself near the denouement, I asked the lovely Frenchwona
”I should like it very much,” she said, ”if I had some other clothes; but with such a costume as this I do not care to shew o out?”