Volume III Part 13 (2/2)
”But I haven't got theht always to be able to put his hand on a hundred louis”
”Yes, but I can't touch ive it up this day week”
”So you can; as I will repay you on Saturday Take a hundred louis from the box, and put in my word of honour instead; don't you think that is worth a hundred Louis?”
”I have nothing to say to that, wait for me a ave it to him Saturday came but no count, and as I had noand replaced the hundred louis I owed the till Three or four days afterwards, as I was at the Cone cato save my honour He said, with a melancholy air, that a man had failed to keep his ith hiive , ”I give you my word of honour”
”Your word of honour is inabout that You can repay rew as pale as death
”My word of honour, my dear Casanova, is ive you the hundred louis at nine o'clock to- at a hundred paces froive you them in person, and nobody will see us I hope you will not fail to be there, and that you will bring your sword I shall havereat honour, but I would rather beg your pardon, if that would prevent this troubleso any further”
”No, I am more to blame than you, and the blame can only be removed by the sword's point Will you h I am very much averse to the affair”
I left him and went to Silvia's, and took my supper sadly, for I really liked this a to play was not worth the candle I would not have fought if I could have convincedtheat it fro that the fault lay in the count's excessive touchiness, and I resolved to give him satisfaction At all hazards I would not fail to keep the appointment
I reached the cafe a ether and he payed We then went out and walked towards the Etoile When we got to a sheltered place he drew a bundle of a hundred louis froreatest courtesy, and said that one stroke of the sould be sufficient I could not reply
He went off four paces and drew his sword I did the sa forward almost as soon as our blades crossed I thrust and hit him I drew backsure that I had wounded hi his hand into his breast he drew it out covered with blood, and said pleasantly to me, ”I am satisfied”
I said to him all that I could, and all that it was my duty to say in the way of co the blood with his handkerchief, and on looking at the point of hted to find that the wound was of the slightest I told hied stmy tears withlearnt a , and a week afterwards we supped together at Camille's
A few days after, I received from M de la Ville the five hundred louis forto see Cane was kept in bed by an attack of sciatica, and that if I liked we could pay hireed, and ent After breakfast was over I told hiivefrom sciatica but from a moist and windy humour which I could disperse my an to laugh, but told o out and buy a brush”
”I will send a servant”
”No, I ht some nitre, mercury, flower of sulphur, and a small brush, and on my return said, ”I must have a little of your----, this liquid is indispensable, and it h, but I succeeded in keeping the serious face suitable toand modestly lowered the curtains, and he then did what I wanted
I redients, and I told Cah whilst I spoke the charhed while she was about it it would spoil all This threat only increased their good huhed without cessation; for as soon as they thought they had got over it, they would look at one another, and after repressing the as they could would burst out afresh, till I began to think that I had bound the their sides for half an hour, they set the ravity for their exaain a serious face, and he then offered Caan to rub the sick man, whilst I mumbled in an undertone words which they would not have understood however clearly I had spoken, seeing that I did not understand the the efficacy of the operation when I saw the gri could bethan the expression on Cah, and dipping the brush into the h the five-pointed star called Soloh in three napkins, and I told him that if he would keep quiet for twenty-four hours without taking off--his napkins, I would guarantee a cure
Thepart of it all was, that by the tihed no more, their faces wore a bewildered look, and as for meI could have sworn I had performed the most wonderful work in the world If one tells a lie a sufficient nu it
A few minutes after this operation, which I had performed as if by instinct and on the spur of the moment, Camille and I went away in a coach, and I told her so ot out at her door she looked quite otten the farce, I heard a carriage stopping atout ofnie