Volume II Part 59 (1/2)
Her cloak and mask were on the bed, but she was dressed as a nun As I wanted to see her face, I politely asked her to doit
”I don't know you,” said she; ”who are you?”
”You are in my house, and don't knoho I am?”
”I am in your house because I have been betrayed I did not think that I should have to do with a scoundrel”
At this word Murray co her by the naot up to take her cloak, saying she would go Murray pushed her back, and told her that she would have to wait for her worthy friend, warning her to make no noise if she wanted to keep out of prison
”Put me in prison!”
With this she directed her hand towards her dress, but I rushed forward and seized one hand while Murray mastered the other We pushed her back on a chair while we possessed ourselves of the pistols she carried in her pockets
Murray tore away the front of her holy habit, and I extracted a stiletto eight inches long, the false nun weeping bitterly all the tiue, and keep quiet till Capsucefalo coo to prison?”
”If I keep quiet ill becoo”
”With him?”
”Perhaps”
”Very well, then, I will keep quiet”
”Have you got any more weapons?”
Hereupon the slut took off her habit and her petticoat, and if we had allowed her she would have soon been in a state of nature, no doubt in the expectation of our passions granting what our reason refused I was much astonished to find in her only a false resemblance to MM
I rereed with me, but made me confess thatto see M M, would have fallen into the sa to possess one's self of a nun who has renounced all the pleasures of the world, and especially that of cohabitation with the other sex, is the very apple of Eve, and isthe convent grating
Few of my readers will fail to testify that the sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won, and that the prize, to obtain which one would risk one's life, would often pass unnoticed if it were freely offered without difficulty or hazard
In the following chapter, dear reader, you will see the end of this farcical adventure In the mean time, let us take a little breath
CHAPTER XXIV
Pleasant Ending of the Adventure of the False Nun--M M
Finds Out That I Have d Mistress--She is Avenged on the Wretch Capsucefalo--I Ruin Myself at Play, and at the Suggestion of M M I Sell all Her Diamonds, One After Another--I Hand Over Tonine to Murray, Who Makes Provision for Her--Her Sister Barberine Takes Her Place
”How did you make this nice acquaintance?” I asked the ao,” he replied, ”while standing at the convent gate with Mr Smith, our consul, in whose company I had been to see so over soive five hundred sequins for a few hours of Sister M---- M---- s company' Count Capsucefalo heard what I said, but made no rerating as did the ambassador of France, who often came to visit her
Capsucefalo called on ood faith he was sure he could get ht with the nun in whatever place I liked, if she could count onto her,' said he, 'and onyour name she said she had noticed you with Mr Smith, and vowed she would sup with you more for love than money 'I,' said the rascal, 'am the only man she trusts, and I take her to the French ao there You need not be afraid of being cheated, as you will give the money to her personally when you have possessed yourself of her' With this he took her portrait froht it of hiht with the charht after our conversation This beauty here cah to think I had got a treasure I a suspected the cheat--at all events, when I saw her hair, as I know that nuns' hair should be cut short