Volume III Part 43 (1/2)
I told Le Duc to shew him in, and to stay by the door I saw enter a well-made man of about forty, dressed in the unifor on his countenance all the allows'-bird
”What can I do for you, sir?” said I, as soon as he entered
”Sir, we knew each other at Cerigo, sixteen or seventeen years ago, and I a the acquaintance”
I knew that I had spent but a few o, on my way to Constantinople, and concluded that ave alms
”Are you the man,” I said, ”who told h there is no such count in Padua at all?”
”I congratulate you on your excellent memory,” said he, coolly, ”I am that very individual”
”Well, what do you ith e my business in the presence of your servant”
”My servant does not understand Italian, so you can speak out; however, if you like, I will send him away”
I ordered Le Duc to stay in the ante-chamber, and when he had left the room my Paduan count told me that I had been with his nieces, and had treated them as if they were courtezans, and that he was co cheated, and I took hold of one instantly Le Duc ca that ”a tireeable position; if I wanted to prosecute, I should have to tell the whole story to the police I thought of my honour and determined to be silent, and the only person to who in the same position as myself took his measures, the result of which was that Lucie had to send her high-born dames about their business But the wretched woed her into the deepest distress, so I made her a present of a few ducats, and she went away soain
Everything I did when I ay from Esther seemed to turn out ill, and I felt that if I wanted to be happy I should do well to keep near her; but my destiny, or rather my inconstancy, drew me away
Three days afterwards, the villainous Major Sabi called onto his account, a Venetian officer I had insulted and refused to give satisfaction to had vowed vengeance against me
”Then,” said I, ”I shall have hialley slave, in which character I have given hiht to do so the unifor the whole arirls who live in a brothel, and who to their deserts?”
”If what you say is true you are quite right, but this poor devil is in a desperate situation; he wants to leave the country, and does not possess a single florin I advise you to give him an alms once more, and you will have done with him Two score florins will not make you any the poorer, and will rid you of a villainous enereed to give him the forty florins, and I handed them to him in a coffee-house where the major told me I should find hiuard four months later
Nohen all these troubles have been long over and I can think over the on the annoyances I experienced at Aht have been so happy, I am forced to admit that we ourselves are the authors of alriefs, of which we so unreasonably coain, should I be wiser? Perhaps; but then I should not be oreat distinction, for, contrary to the rules of Freemasonry, no one but the twenty-four e is admitted, and these twenty-four e
”I have told the,” said M d'O----, ”and to welcoe will be opened in French” In short, these gentleuished reception, and I had the fortune to reeable to the the ti away, M d'O---- told me that I had supped with a company which represented a capital of three hundred ed hter's oracle had replied in a very obscure ed me, and I asked what the question was It ran as follows:
”I wish to knohether the individual who desires reatest i of France?”
It was not difficult for me to divine that the Comte de St Germain was meant M d'O was not aware that I knew hiotten what M d'Afri had told ht I, ”for coveringto think about”
I set to work, and after erectingabove the four keys the letters O, S, A, D, the better to i with the fourth key, D The oracle ran as follows:
”The friend disavows The order is signed They grant They refuse All vanishes Delay”
I pretended to think the reply a very obscure one, but Esther gave a cry of astonishave a lot of information in an extraordinary style M d'O----, in an ecstasy of delight, exclaih for me The oracle is divine; the word 'delay' is addressed tothe oracle speak, but I am more skilled than you in the interpretation thereof I shall prevent the thing going any further
The project is no less a one than to lend a hundred e the dia wishes the loan to be concluded without the interference of hisabout it I entreat you not to mention the matter to anyone”