Volume III Part 20 (1/2)
d'O---- left us to our own devices Mdlle Casanova's intended put on my skates, and the ladies put on their short petticoats with black velvet drawers to guard against certain accidents We reached the river, and as I was a perfect neophyte in this sport the figure I cut ined
However, I resolutely determined to conquer my aardness, and twenty times, to the peril of my spine, did I fall down upon the ice I should have been wiser to have left off, but I was ashaht, ere summoned in to dinner But I paid dear for my obstinacy, for when I tried to rise from the table I felt as if I had lost the use of my limbs Esther pitied hter at h, as I felt certain that the whole thing had been contrived to turnto ood te the young people go by themselves on the A when I awoke I thought I was a lost man I suffered a martyrdom of pain The last of my vertebral bones, called by doctors the os sacruh I had used aliven et my proht all the books I thought likely to interest her She was very grateful, and told me to come and embrace her before I started if I wanted a pretty present
It was not likely that I was going to refuse such an invitation as that, so I went early in the overness took ay as Venus herself
”I am quite sure,” said she, ”that you would not have come at all unless I had asked you to come and embrace me”
At this my lips were fastened on her mouth, her eyes, and on every spot of her lovely face But seeingthat I shouldand put herself on the defensive
”Go away,” said she, slyly, ”go away and enjoy yourself at the Hague with the fair Trenti, who possesses so pretty a token of your love”
”My dear Esther, I aue to talk business with the ambassador, and for no other reason, and in six days at latest you will seenothing better than to please you”
”I rely upon your word of honour, but mind you do not deceive avecertain of , at supper-time, I reached Boaz's house
EPISODE 12 -- RETURN TO PARIS
CHAPTER V
My Fortune in Holland--My Return to Paris with Young Po for eneral, which advised me that twenty millions in Government securities had been placed in the hands of M d'Afri, as not to go beyond a loss of eight per cent; and another letter fro me to do the best I could, and to be assured that the aain eous than that of the exchange at Paris Boaz, as astonished at the bargain I had made with my shares, wanted to discount the Governreed to his terive hiree concluded in thebefore I saw that I should do well to get back to Amsterdam, but I did not care to break ue I received a letter froht it toldto conduct me to her I sent uide made me climb to the fourth floor of a soe wohter The table stood in the midst of the room, and was covered with a black cloth, and the two candles standing upon it ue was a Court town
I was richly dressed; my elaborate attire loos Therese, dressed in black and seated between her children at that black table, re creatures vowed to a lot of ht I took the boy betweenhim to my breast called him my son His mother told hinizedme in the May of 1753, in Venice, at Mada; his limbs ell proportioned, and his features intellectual He was thirteen years old
His sister sat perfectly still, apparently waiting for her turn to come
I took her on my knee, and as I embraced her, nature herself seehter She took ht herself preferred to her brother, and was charht frock, and I was able to feel every lihted that so sweet a being owed her existence to entleman the sameat Amsterdam, and as taken for my papa because I am like him? But that cannot be, for my papa is dead”
”So he is, sweetheart; but I may be your dear friend, mayn't I? Would you like to haveher arave ht
After we had talked and laughed together we sat down at table, and the heroine Therese gave me a delicate supper accorave better fare,” said she, ”at those nice little suppers we used to take together”
Wishi+ng to probe the disposition of her son, whoed to take aith me, I addressed several remarks to him, and soon discovered that he was of a false and deceitful nature, always on his guard, taking care of what he said, and consequently speaking only from his head and not from his heart Every as delivered with a quiet politeness which, no doubt, was intended to pleasewas all very well on occasion; but that there were times when a man's happiness depended on his freedom from constraint; then and only then was his a to praise him, told me that reserve was his chief characteristic, that she had trained him to keep his counsel at all ti reserved with her as with everyone else
”All I can say is,” said I, ”your systeled in their infancy all the finer qualities hich nature has endowed your son, and have fairly set hiel I don't see how the most devoted father can possibly have any affection for a son who keeps all his emotions under lock and key”
This outburst, which proceeded from the tenderness I would fain have felt for the boy, seemed to strike his mother dumb