Volume II Part 62 (1/2)

Leaving thereatly surprised to find ure rose as soon as she saw racefully asked me pardon for the liberty she had taken

”I aht the candles in the evening for fear of attracting the gnats, but when you want to go to bed ill shut the door and go away I beg to introduce you to one to bed”

I answered her to the effect that the balcony was always at her service, and that since it was still early I begged their perown and to keep the; she htful hours, and did not leave hted ht

I lay down full of this pretty girl, and I could not believe that she was really ill She spoke to the point, she was cheerful, clever, and full of spirits I could not understand how it came to pass that she had not been already cured in a town like Venice, if her cure was really only to be effected in the helini; for in spite of her pallor she seeh to charh to deterreeablethe bell as I was getting up, and the younger sister came into my room, and said that as they kept no servant she had come to do what I wanted I did not care to have a servant when I was not at M de Bragadin's, as I found myself more at liberty to do what I liked After she had done me some small services, I asked her how her sister was

”Very well,” said she, ”for her pale complexion is not an illness, and she only suffers when her breath fails her She has a very good appetite, and sleeps as well as I do”

”Whothat I h her old dancing master allowed her to turn in her toes

All that this young and beautiful girl wanted was the Promethean spark, the colour of life; her whiteness was too like snow, and was distressing to look at

The dancing edhi,” said he; but she hastened to answer that she did not feel weak, and would like to dance thus She danced very well, but e had done she was obliged to throw herself in a chair ”In future, my dear master,” said she, ”I will only dance like that, for I think the rapid one, I told her that her lessons were too short, and that her et into bad habits I then set her feet, her shoulders, and her arracefully, to bend her knees in tiular lesson for an hour, and seeing that she was getting rather tired I begged her to sit down, and I went out to pay a visit to M M

I found her very sad, for C---- C----'s father was dead, and they had taken her out of the convent toC---- C---- had left a letter for me, in which she said that if I would promise to marry her at some time suitable to myself, she would wait for htforwardly that I had no property and no prospects, that I left her free, advising her not to refuse any offer which e

In spite of this disht froain in Venice I did not see her for nineteen years, and then I was grieved to find her a , and poorly off If I went to Venice now I should not e is an absurdity, but I would share with her my little all, and live with her as with a dear sister

When I hear wo about the bad faith and inconstancy ofthat when men make promises of eternal constancy they are always deceivers, I confess that they are right, and join in their complaints Still it cannot be helped, for the promises of lovers are dictated by the heart, and consequently the lah Alas! we love without heeding reason, and cease to love in the same manner

About this time I received a letter from the Abbe de Bernis, rote also to M---- M---- He told ht to do s, dwelling on the risks I should run in carrying her off and bringing her to Paris, where all his influence would be of no avail to obtain for us that safety so indispensable to happiness I saw M---- M----; we shewed each other our letters, she had sorief pierced reat love for her in spite of ht of those iven over to voluptuousness I could not help pitying her fate as I thought of the days of despair in store for her But soon after this an event happened which gave rise to some wholesome reflections One day, when I had co a nun who died of consumption the day before yesterday in the odour of sanctity She was called 'Maria Concetta' She knew you, and told C---- C---- your name when you used to coed her to be discreet, but the nun told her that you were a dangerous irl C---- C---- told me all this after the mask of Pierrot”

”What was this saint's name when she was in the world?”

”Martha”

”I know her”

I then told M---- M---- the whole history ofwith the letter she wrote me, in which she said that she owed me, indirectly, that eternal salvation to which she hoped to attain

In eight or ten days hter--conversation which took place on the balcony, and which generally lasted till , produced the inevitable and natural results; firstly, that she no longer co, and, secondly, that I fell in love with her Nature's cure had not yet relieved her, but she no longer needed to be let blood Righelini ca that she was better he prophesied that nature's remedy, without which only art could keep her alive, would ht before the autuel sent by God to cure her daughter, who for her part shewed ratitude which omen is the first step towards love I had ht her to dance with extrerace

At the end of these ten or twelve days, just as I was going to give her her lesson, her breath failed instantaneously, and she fell back into my arms like a dead woman I was alarmed, but her mother, who had becoeon, and her sister unlaced her I was enchanted with her exquisite boso to eon would make a false stroke if he were to see her thus uncovered; but feeling that I laidat aze which eon came and bled her in the arm, and almost instantaneously she recovered full consciousness At most only four ounces of blood were taken fro me that this was the utmost extent to which she was blooded, I saas no suchblooded twice a week she lost three pounds of blood a month, which she would have done naturally if the vessels had not been obstructed

The surgeon had hardly gone out of the door when to my astonishment she told me that if I would wait for her aThis she did, and danced as if there had been nothing the matter

Her bosoive evidence, was the last stroke, and made me , and found her in her roo her God-father, as an inti to spend an hour with her for the last eighteen years

”How old is he?”

”He is over fifty”