Volume IV Part 15 (1/2)
”I a asked who I aentle such a question”
”But if they did, what ought I to do?”
”You should make use of an evasion”
”What's an evasion?”
”A way of escaping fro impertinent curiosity”
”Give me an exaht say, 'You had better ask this gentleman'”
”I see, the question is avoided; but is not that impolite?”
”Yes; but not so i question”
”And ould you say if the question was passed on to you?”
”Well, my ansould vary in a ratio with the respect in which I held the questioner I would not tell the truth, but I should say solad to see you attentive to my lessons Always ask questions, and you will always find me ready to answer, for I want to teach you
And now let us to bed; we have to start for Antibes at an early hour, and love will reward you for the pleasure you have given me to-day”
At Antibes I hired a felucca to take me to Genoa, and as I intended to return by the sae warehoused for a sood wind, but the sea beco mortally afraid, I had the felucca rowed into Villafranca, where I engaged a carriage to take me to Nice The weather kept us back for three days, and I felt obliged to call on the coave me an excellent reception, and after the usual compliments had passed, said,--
”Do you know a Russian who calls himself Charles Ivanoff?”
”I saw him once at Grenoble”
”It is said that he has escaped froer son of the Duke of Courland”
”So I have heard, but I know no proof of his claim to the title”
”He is at Genoa, where it is said a banker is to give hiive him a sou here, so I sent him to Genoa at lad that the Russian had gone away beforeat the sae of a packet which M de St Pierre, the Spanish consul, had to send to the Marquis Grinon, and I was pleased to execute the commission The same officer asked me whether I had ever seen a certain Madao with a man who calls himself her husband
The poor devils hadn't a penny, and she, a great beauty, enchanted everybody, but would give no one a smile or a word”
”I have both seen and know her,” I answered ”I furnished her with the means to come here How could she leave Nice without any money?”
”That's just what no one can understand She went off in a carriage, and the landlord's bill was paid I was interested in the woman The Marquis Grimaldi told me that she had refused a hundred louis he offered her, and that a Venetian of his acquaintance had fared just as badly Perhaps that is you?”
”It is, and I gave her some money despite my treatment”