Volume III Part 44 (1/2)
”And now, e the whole coratitude toman in Holland To you, my dear children, I owe this honour, but I wear my peacock's feathers without scruple
”My dear Casanova, you will dine with us, I hope After dinner I shall beg you to enquire of your inscrutable intelligence whether we ought to declare ourselves in possession of the splendid diamond, or to observe secrecy till it is reclaimed”
After this discourse papa embraced us onceher arproof of your friendshi+p It will cost you nothing, but it will cover me with honour and happiness”
”Command me, and it shall be done You cannot think that I would refuse you a favour which is to cost , when I should deem myself happy to shed my blood for your sake”
”My father wishes you to tell him after dinner whether it will be better to declare that they have the diamond or to keep silence till it is claimed When he asks you a second time, tell him to seek the answer of me, and offer to consult the oracle also, in case my answer may be too obscure Then perform the operation, and I will make my father love e is equal to yours”
”Dearest one, would I not do for thee a task a thousand times more difficult than this to prove my love and my devotion? Let us set to work Do you write the question, set up the pyramids, and inscribe with your own hand the all-powerful initials Good Now begin to extract the answer by means of the divine key Never was a cleverer pupil!”
When all this had been done, I suggested the additions and subtractions I wantedreply: ”Silence necessary Without silence, general derision Diaone ith delight She laughed and laughed again
”What an a reply!” said she ”The diamond is false, and it is I who am about to reveal their folly to them I shall inform my father of this important secret It is too much, it overwhelms me; I can scarcely contain htful man! They will verify the truth of the oracle immediately, and when it is found that the fa paste the company will adore my father, for it will feel that but for hi itself the dupe of a sharper Will you leave the pyramid withyou do not know” The father caain and we had dinner, and after the dessert, when the worthy d 'O---- learnt frohter's oracle that the stone was false, the scene became a truly comical one He burst into excla ied me to ask the sahter washer
I set to work, and was not long in obtaining my answer When he saw that it was to the sah differently expressed, he had no longer any doubts as to his daughter's skill, and hastened to go and test the pretended dia about the matter after they had received proofs of the worthlessness of the stone This advice was, as it happened, useless; for though the persons concerned said nothing, everybody knew about it, and people said, with their usual hly, and that St Germain had pocketed the hundred thousand florins; but this was not the case
Esther was very proud of her success, but instead of being satisfied hat she had done, she desired more fervently every day to possess the science in its entirety, as she supposed I possessed it
It soon becaone by Eland, where he had arrived in safety In due ti this celebrated impostor; and in the meanwhile I must relate a catastrophe of another kind, which was near to have made me die the death of a fool
It was Christ in better spirits than usual The old woesrief But this tiood effect I received a letter and a large packet froht I should have died of grief when I read,--
”Be wise, and receive the news I give you calmly The packet contains your portrait and all the letters you have written to me Return h to burn them
I rely on your honour Think of et you, for at this hour to-morrow I shall become the wife of M
Blondel of the Royal Acade Please do not seem as if you knew me if we chance to meet on your return to Paris”
This letter struck me dumb with astonishment, and for more than two hours after I read it I was, as it were, bereft ofwell, I was going to keep my room all day When I felt a little better I opened the packet The first thing to fall out was my portrait I looked at it, and such was the perturbation of h the miniature really represented ht I beheld a dreadful and a threatening visage I went to my desk and wrote and tore up a score of letters in which I overwhelmed the faithless one with threats and reproaches
I could bear no ed to lie down and take a little broth, and court that sleep which refused to coination
I rejected them one by one, only to devise new ones I would slay this Blondel, who had carried off a woman as mine and mine only; as all butthe object for whom she had desertedleft norance of the insult which had so traitorously been put upon hts, and in theworse than ever, I sent to M d'O---- to say that I could not possibly leave an to read and re-read the letters I had written to Manon, calling upon her naain set le letter The ean to stupefy uish only to re-awaken to acuter pains soon after
About three o'clock, the worthy M d'O---- caue, where the chiefto keep the Feast of St John, but when he saw my condition he did not press me to come
”What is the matter with you, rief, but let us say no edal Esther anticipated overness caood She was astonished to see rief of which I had spoken to her father, and which had proved too strong for my philosophy