Volume III Part 18 (2/2)
She dreay her hand and offered ave ht was a little alloyed when she said that she would give me another kiss before her father whenever I liked
We reached the concert-roohters of rich merchants, some pretty, some plain, and all curious to knoho I was The fair Esther, who knew noa fair young girl a little way off she pointed her out to h I replied that I did not care for fair girls
”All the same, I must introduce you to her, for she may be a relation of yours Her name is the same; that is her father over there:”
”M Casanova,” said she, speaking to a gentle to introduce to you M Casanova, a friend of my father's”
”Really? The same name; I wish, sir, you wereto the Naples branch”
”Then we are related, though distantly, as ree?”
”I ought to have such a thing, but to tell you the truth, I don't think much of such matters Besants d'or and such heraldic moneys are not currency in ais certainly a somewhat foolish pursuit; but it may nevertheless afford us a fewany parade of our ancestry”
”With allon you to- my family-tree with me Will you be vexed if you find the root of your fahted I will call on you myself to-morrow
May I ask if you are a business ent in the e with M Pels”
M Casanova hter and introduced me to her
She was Esther's dearest friend, and I sat down between thean
After a fine symphony, a concerto for the violin, another for the hautbois, the Italian singer whose repute was so great and as styled Madame Trend nized in her Therese Imer, wife of the dancer Pompeati, whose nahteen years ago, when the old senator Malipiero had struck ain at Venice in 1753, and then our pastione to Bayreuth, where she had been the o and see her, but C---- C---- and my fair nun M---- M---- had left me neither the time nor the wish to do so Soon after I was put under the Leads, and then I had other things to think about I was sufficiently self-controlled not to shew , with her exquisite voice, beginning ”Eccoti giunta al fin, donna infelice,” words which seemed made for the case
The applause seemed as if it would never come to an end Esther told me that it was not knoho she was, but that she was said to be a wooes fro at all the public concerts, and all she receives is what those present choose to give her on a plate which she takes round”
”Does she find that pay?”
”I should suspect not, as everyone has paid already at coet more than thirty or forty florins The day after to-ue, then to Rotterda for six months, and she is alell received”
”Has she a lover?”
”She is said to have lovers in every town, but instead of enriching her they make her poorer She alears black, not only because she is a , but also on account of a great grief she is reported to have gone through She will soon be co round” I took out my purse; and counted out twelve ducats, which I wrapped in paper;all the while in a ridiculousto be excited about
When Therese was going along the seats in front of lanced at her for an instant, and I saw that she looked surprised I turned my head to speak to Esther, and when she was directly in front ofat her, and she passed on A little girl, four or five years old, followed her, and when she got to the end of the bench she ca in her a facsimile of myself, but I concealed azed at me fixedly, to my no small confusion ”Would you like so her old The little girl took it sly, made me a curtsy, and went on
”Does it strike you, M Casanova,” said Esther, with a laugh, ”that you and that little girl are as like each other as two peas?”
”Yes, indeed,” added Mdlle Casanova, ”there is a striking likeness”
”These resemblances are often the work of chance”