Volume II Part 36 (2/2)
”As you please; but may I enquire your reasons?”
”Tell me first what your proposal was”
”Has he not told you?”
”Perhaps he has; but if you wish to know my reasons, I must hear the whole affair from your own lips, because M Dandolo spoke to ood is all this reserve?”
”Everyone has his own principles and his oay of thinking: I have a sufficiently good opinion of you to believe that you would act exactly as I do, for I have heard you say that in all secret ainst surprise”
”I ae of a friend; but as a general rule your ht one; I like prudence I will tell you the whole affair You are aware that Madame Tripolo has been left a , and that M Dandolo is courting her assiduously, after having done the sa the life of the husband
The lady, who is still young, beautiful and lovely, and also is very respectable, wishes to become his wife It is tothat was not praiseworthy, either in a temporal or in a spiritual point of view, in that union, for after all we are all men, I took the affair in hand with real pleasure
I fancied even that M Dandolo felt soe when he toldI a asked your advice in such an i the opinion of a wise friend before taking a decisive step; but I must tell you candidly that I ae Pray excuse me if, in order to improve by the information, I ask why your opinion is exactly the reverse ofdiscovered the whole affair, at having arrived in ti an absurd e, I answered the hypocrite that I loved M Dandolo, that I knew his tee with a woman like Mada my opinion,” I added, ”youhi told me that you neverarguments in favour of celibacy while ere at Par, that every man has a certain small stock of selfishness, and that I may be allowed to have mine when I think that if M Dandolo took a wife the influence of that ould of course have soained in influence over him the more I should lose So you see it would not be natural for me to advise him to take a step which would ultimately prove very detrimental to my interests If you can prove thator sophistical, speak openly: I will tell M Dandolo that ed; Madame Tripolo will become his e return to Venice
But let h conviction can alone h to convince you I shall write to Madame Tripolo that sheof the sort to that lady, or she will think that you are laughing at her Do you suppose her foolish enough to expect that I will give way to her wishes? She knows that I do not like her”
”How can she possibly know that?”
”She must have remarked that I have never cared to accompany M Dandolo to her house Learn fro as I live with et married as soon as you please; I promise not to throw any obstacle in your way; but if you wish to re my three friends astray”
”You are very caustic this ht
”Then I have chosen a bad time Farewell”
From that day, De la Haye becareat measure indebted, two years later, forto his slanders, for I do not believe he was capable of that, Jesuit though he was--and even a--but through the oted persons I ive fair notice to my readers that, if they are fond of such people, theyto a tribe which I have good reason to attack unain alluded to M Dandolo continued to visit his beautifulevery day, and I took care to elicit fro interdiction ever to putMilanese whoht clever hand in securing the favours of Dame Fortune, called on me a fewseen ht before, he had co my losses, if I would take an equal interest with him in a faro bank that he meant to hold at his house, and in which he would have as punters seven or eight rich foreigners ere courting his wife
”If you will put three hundred sequins in my bank,” he added, ”you shall be my partner I have three hundred sequins h Come and dine at my house, and you will make their acquaintance We can play next Friday as there will be no opera, and you old, for a certain Gilenspetz, a Swede, may lose twenty thousand sequins”
I ithout any resources, or at all events I could expect no assistance except fro I ell aware that the proposal ht have chosen a more honourable society; but if I had refused, the purse of Madame Croce's admirers would not have been more mercifully treated; another would have profited by that stroke of good fortune I was therefore not rigid enough to refuse my assistance as adjutant and my share of the pie; I accepted Croce's invitation
CHAPTER XIV
I Get Rich Again--My Adventure At Dolo--analysis of a Long Letter From C C--Mischievous Trick Played Upon Me By P
C--At Vincenza--A Tragi-comedy At the Inn