Volume IV Part 43 (1/2)
At these words the girl in question blushed and lowered her eyes
”Never mind, my dear,” said I, ”your turn will come in time”
She took my words as seriously uessed her love for Costa, and her idea was confiret hters, well nized in a carriage I meant to make use of myself I also bade him hire some handsome costumes from a Jew, and paid the hire-ood hunora Maria?” said the jealous sister
”As Signora Maria is going to be married,” I replied, ”she must not be present at any festivity without her future husband”
The mother applauded this decision of mine, and sly Mariuccia pretended to feel ed him to ask Mariuccia's future husband to reatly
I felt very tired, and having nothing to keep ed the coood appetite I left the at an early hour I had no need of going into the church, which I reached at seven o'clock, for Mariuccia saw me at soether in the little room, which love and voluptuous pleasure had transladly have talked to each other, but as we had only an hour before us, we set to without even taking off our clothes After the last kiss which ended the third assault, she told me that she was to be married on the eve of Shrove Tuesday, and that all had been arranged by her confessor She also thankedasked Momolo to invite her intended
”When shall we see each other again, , we shall be able to spend four hours together”
”Delightful! I promise you that when you leave me you will be in such a state that the caresses of your husband won't hurt you”
She smiled and departed, and I threw ood hour
As I was going horeat speed
A foot nobleman My attention was arrested by the blue ribbon on his breast I gazed at hie stopped I was extrehan, whom I had known at Paris at his mother's, the Countess of Lismore, as separated from her husband, and was the kept mistress of M de St
Aubin, the unworthy successor of the good and virtuous Fenelon in the archbishopric of Cambrai However, the archbishop owed his promotion to the fact that he was a bastard of the Duc d'Orleans, the French Regent
Lord O'Callaghan was a fine-looking young man, it and talent, but the slave of his unbridled passions and of every species of vice I knew that if he were lord in name he was not so in fortune, and I was astonished to see hie, and still more so at his blue ribbon In a feords he toldto dine with the Pretender, but that he would sup at home He invited me to come to supper, and I accepted
After dinner I took a short walk, and then went to enlivenabout with Costa; afterwards I went to Lord O'Callaghan, and was pleasantly surprised to ly, full of poetic fire, a wit, and dramatist Five or six years later the poor fellow fell into the Guadalquivir and was drowned He had gone to Madrid in the hope ofhis fortune As I had known him at Paris I addressed hi at Rohan?”
”He's in the next room, but as his father is dead his title is now Earl of Lismore You knoas an adherent of the Pretender's I left Paris with hi able to co”
”Then the earl is a rich man now?”
”Not exactly; but he will be, as he is his father's heir, and the old earl left an immense fortune It is true that it is all confiscated, but that is nothing, as his claims are irresistible”
”In short, he is rich in claiet hi's orders?”
”You're joking That is the blue ribbon of the Order of St Michael, of which the late Elector of Cologne was grand master As you know, my lord plays exquisitely on the violin, and when he was at Bonn he played the Elector a concerto by Tartini The prince could not find words in which to express the pleasure of ave him the ribbon you have seen”
”A fine present, doubtless”
”You don't knohat pleasure it gave o back to Paris everybody will take it for the Order of the Holy Ghost”