Volume IV Part 20 (1/2)

I have never liked eating by h I once thought of turningall the pleasures of life lives well in a kind of holy idleness This dislike to loneliness ive orders that the table should be laid for two, and indeed, after supping with the ht to expect as hts which her wit and beauty gave her

I only saw Costa, and asked hio behind the lady's chair,” said I He obeyed, but sh a servant's pride is the silliest of all it is often pushed to the greatest extreht Veronique prettier than before Her behaviour, now free and now reserved, as the occasion demanded, shewed me that she was no new hand, and that she could have played the part of a princess in the best society Nevertheless (so strange a thing is the heart of man), I was sorry to find I liked her, and my only consolation was that her mother would come and take her away before the day was over I had adored Rosalie, and irl's mother came while ere still at table She was astounded at the honour I shewed her daughter, and she overwhelratitude,” said I to her; ”your daughter is clever, good, and beautiful”

”Thank the gentleman for his compliment,” said the ly;” and then she added, ”But how could you have the face to sit at table with the gentleman in a dirty cheht you were right; but I put a clean one on only two hours ago”

”Madam,” said I to the hter's whiter skin”

This irl immensely When the mother told her that she was come to take her back, Veronique said, with a sly sentle hioes away”

”On the contrary,” said I, ”I should be very vexed”

”Well; then, she can stay, sir,” said the er sister to sleep with her”

”If you please,” I rejoined And with that I left theht of Veronique troubled me, as I kneas taken with her, and what I had to dread was a calculated resistance

The , and wishedhter Annette The girl ca, acco her aily to kiss her sister

I wanted to see what she was like, and called for candles; and on their being brought I found she was a blonde of a kind I had never before seen Her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were the colour of pale gold, fairer almost than her skin, which was extree pale blue eyes onderfully beautiful

She had the sular, were not so white as her skin But for this defect Annette ht have passed for a perfect beauty

Her shortness of sight ht painful to her, but as she stood before rily on the two little half-spheres, which were not yet ripe, but so white as tothe rest of her body must be

Veronique did not shew her breasts so freely One could see that she was superbly shaped, but everything was carefully hidden froaze She made her sister sit down beside her and work, but when I saw that she was obliged to hold the stuff close to her face I told her that she should spare her eyes, for that night at all events, and with that she obediently put the work down

The ht Annette, who h rank, the voluptuous old man dared to pass his hand over her breast, and she, as too respectful to cross htest objection She was a co little succeeds ina man want to seehi else than a kind of curiosity? I think not; and what makes me certain is that when the curiosity is satisfied the love disappears Love, however, is the strongest kind of curiosity in existence, and I was already curious about Annette

M Grimaldi told Veronique that Rosalie wished her to stay with me till I left Genoa, and she was as h to tell her,” said I to the marquis, ”that Veronique has anticipated her wishes and has got her sister Annette to stay with her”

”Two are always better than one, my dear fellow,” replied the crafty Genoese

After these reether and went into my room, where he said,--