Volume IV Part 7 (1/2)

This decided theave in The door-keeper sent to order the boat, and proht

The hours passed by in jests and ne corks fly to such an extent that the girls began to get rather gay I myself felt a little heated, and as I held each one's secret I had the hardihood to tell them that their scruples were ridiculous, as each of theazed at one another in a kind of blank surprise, as if indignant at what I had said Foreseeing that feht prompt them to treat ive the Manon on to ave in and abandoned herself to my passion Her exaed in every kind of voluptuous enjoyment At the end of that tiive theloves to the amount of thirty louis, the loves not to be called for

I went to sleep on board the boat, and did not awake till we got to Avignon I was conducted to the inn of ”St Omen” and supped in my room in spite of thebeauty at the public table

Nextmy Spaniard told me that the beauty and her husband slept in a rooht me a bill of the play, and I saw Co and dance I gave a cry of wonder, and exclainon--how she will be astonished to seeto live in hermit fashi+on, I went downstairs to dine at the public table, and I found a score of people sitting down to such a choice repast that I could not conceive how it could be done for forty sous a head The fair stranger drew all eyes, and especiallyand perfect beauty, silent, her eyes fixed on a napkin, replying inat the speaker with large blue eyes, the beauty of which it would be difficult to describe Her husband was seated at the other end of the table--a lance He was young, hing and speaking at randouise Feeling sure that such a fellow did not kno to refuse, I sent hine, which he drank off to lass to your wife?” He replied, with a roar of laughter, to ask her ht bow she toldto drink When the dessert came in she rose, and her husband followed her to their rooer who like myself had never seen her before, asked me who she was I said I was a newcomer and did not know, and somebody else said that her husband called hioing to Marseilles; he cao, without servants, and in a very poor carriage

I intended staying at Avignon only as long as ht be necessary to see the Fountain or Fall of Vaucluse, and so I had not got any letters of introduction, and had not the pretext of acquaintance that I ht stay and enjoy her fine eyes But an Italian who had read and enjoyed the divine Petrarch would naturally wish to see the place made divine by the poet's love for Laura I went to the theatre, where I saw the vice-legate Salviati, women of fashi+on, neither fair nor foul, and a wretched comic opera; but I neither saw Astrodi nor any other actor from the Comedie Italienne at Paris

”Where is the fa by me, ”I have not seen her yet”

”Excusebefore your eyes”

”By Jove, it's ied as not to be recognized she is no longer herself”

I turned to go, and two ed -roo a word, and saw a plain-looking girl, who threw her arh I could have sworn I had never seen her before, but she did not leave ave himself out as the father of the famous Astrodi, as known to all Paris, who had caused the death of the Comont, one of the ht this ugly feht be her sister, so I sat down and compliing her dress; and in aa liberality which possibly ht have been absent if what she had to display had been worth seeing

I laughed internally at her wiles, for after my experiences at Grenoble she would have found it a hard task to arouse ly Her thinness and her tawny skin could not divertfeatures about her

I ades She must have credited me with a diabolic appetite, but these women often contrive to extract charms out of their depravity which their delicacy would be ied ed to refuse her in a way I should not have allowed ed me to take four tickets for the play the next day, which was to be for her benefit I saas only a hted to be quit of her so cheaply I told her to give one ave her a double louis She was not the real Astrodi I went back to my inn and had a delicious supper inmy hair before I went to bed, he told er and her husband before supper, and had said in clear ter; and if he were not, no place would be laid for them at table, and their linen would be detained

”Who told you that?”

”I heard it from here; their room is only separated from this by a wooden partition If they were in it now, I a”

”Where are they, then?”

”At table, where they are eating for to-

There's a fine chance for you, sir”

”Be quiet; I shan't have anything to do with it It's a trap, for a woman of any worth would die rather than weep at a public table”