Volume III Part 22 (2/2)

Seeing ed her father to take no further steps in the matter For sohtful and full of the project which his fancy had painted in such gay colours He said a good deal about it, dwelling on the hter to read out all the questions she had addressed to the oracle with the answers she had received There were six or seven of them, all briefly worded, some direct and some equivocal Esther, who had constructed the pyra the answers, which I had really invented, and her father, in the joy of his heart, seeing her so clever, iined that she would becoence The lovely Esther, as much taken with the trifle; was quite ready to be of the sa several hours in the discussion of the answers, whichM d'O---- said that as Sunday was a day for pleasure and not business he hoped I would honour the the day at their pretty house on the A their invitation

I could not help pondering over the mysteries of the commercial mind, which narrows itself down to considerations of profit and loss M

d'O---- was decidedly an honest h he was rich, he was by no reed incident to his profession I asked myself the question, how a man, ould consider it dishonourable to steal a ducat, or to pick one up in the street and keep it, knowing to whoed, could reconcile it with his conscience toa vessel of the safety of which he was perfectly certain, as he believed the oracle infallible Such a transaction was certainly fraudulent, as it is dishonest to play when one is certain of winning

As I was going hooing in and coed in Holland Great heavens! I found y, the scene a sort of cellar, a perfect cesspool of vice and debauchery The discordant noise of the two or three instruloom to the soul and added to the horrors of the cavern The air was dense with the fuarlic issued from every mouth The company consisted of sailors, men of the lowest-class, and a nus of the people thought this den a garden of delight, and considered its pleasures compensation for the toils of the sea and the le wo about it I was looking at the repulsive sight in silence, when a great hulking fellohose appearance suggested the blacksuard, came up to me and asked me in bad Italian if I would like to dance

I answered in the negative, but before leaving eto discover if she was anyone I knew I looked at her attentively, and seeh I could not decide who she could be Feeling rather curious on the subject I sat down next to her, and asked if she cao

”Nearly eighteen years,” she replied

I ordered a bottle of wine, and asked if she would take any; she said yes, and added, if I liked, she would oblige ave the poor wretch the change I received froratitude, and would have e at Amsterdam better than Venice?” I asked

”Alas, no! for if I were inthis dreadful trade”

”How old were you when you left Venice”

”I was only fourteen and lived happily with rief”

”Who seduced you?”

”A rascally footman”

”In what part of Venice did you live?”

”I did not live in Venice, but at Friuli, not far off”

Friulieighteen years agoa foot at the wretched wonized in her Lucie of Pasean I cannot describe my sorrohich I concealed as best I could, and tried hard to keep up ht of time had tarnished her beauty, and ruined the once exquisite outlines of her forly, vile, a coht She drank like a sailor, without looking atwho I was I took a few ducats fromfor her to find out how iven her I left that horrible den

I went to bed full of saddening thoughts Not even under the Leads did I pass so wretched a day I thought I must have risen under soard to Lucie I felt the sting of reht of M d'O---- I hated myself I considered that I should cause him a loss of three or four hundred thousand florins; and the thought was a bitter drop in the cup of my affection for Esther I fancied, she, as well as her father, would become my implacable foe; and love that is not returned is no love at all

I spent a dreadful night Lucie, Esther, her father, their hatred of roundwork of my dreams I saw Esther and her father, if not ruined, at all events impoverished by my fault, and Lucie only thirty-two years old, and already deep in the abyss of vice, with an infinite prospect of misery and shame before her The daelcome indeed, for with its appearance a calm came to my spirit; it is, the darkness which is terrible to a heart full of reot up and dressed myself in my best, and went in a coach to doat the ”Etoile d'Orient” I found her out; she had gone to the Admiralty I went there, and found her accompanied by M de Reissak and the Count de Tot, who had just received news of my friend Pesselier, at whose house I erously ill when I left Paris

I sent away an to walk towards M d'O----'s house on the A in the eyes of the Dutch populace, and they hissed and hooted me, after thefrom the , drew the rope, and opened the door I ran in, shut the door behindup the wooden staircase, on the fourth or fifth stepsubstance I looked down and saw a green pocket-book I stooped down to pick it up, but ard enough to send it through an opening in the stairs, which had been doubtless ht to a stair below I did not stop, but went up the steps and was received with the usual hospitality, and on their expressing some wonder as to the unusual brilliance of my attire I explained the circumstances of the case Esther smiled and said I looked quite another person, but I saw that both father and daughter were sad at heart Esther's governess ca to her in Dutch, at which, in evident distress, she ran and e has happened to you If my presence is a restraint, treat reat an ill-hap after all; I have enough money left to bear the loss patiently”

”If I may ask the question, what is the nature of your loss?”

”I have lost a green pocket-book containing a good deal of money, which if I had been wise I would have left behind, as I did not require it till to-morrow”