Volume IV Part 49 (1/2)
”Quite so”
”Are you perfectly free to do what you like?”
”I think so”
”Can you give supper to anyone you like in your own rooms? I am certain you can't”
”I have not had the opportunity of trying the experiment so far, but I believe”
”Don't flatter yourself by believing anything; that house is full of the spies of the police”
”Then you think that I could not give you and two or three of your girls a little supper?”
”I should take very good care not to go to it, that's all I know By nextit would be known to all the town, and especially to the police”
”Well, supposing I look out for another lodging?”
”It's the same everywhere Turin is a perfect nest of spies; but I do know a house where you could live at ease, and whereyou your purchases But we should have to be very careful”
”Where is the house I will be guided by you in everything”
”Don't trust a Piedave me the address of a small furnished house, which was only inhabited by an old door-keeper and his wife
”They will let it you by the month,” said she, ”and if you pay a month in advance you need not even tell them your na in a lonely street at about two hundred paces froe, led into the country I found everything to be as Madame R---- had described it I paid a , and in a day I had settled inMadame R---- ad and enjoyedat once solemn and ridiculous about the cereet e from her father, which with the horses I placed in the coach-house and stables of o whenever I would by night or by day, for I was at once in the town and in the country I was obliged to tell the inquisitive Ga froether dependent on ave orders that iven special instructions that they were to be admitted I had no reason to doubt the fidelity of my two servants
In this blissful abode I enjoyed all Mdlle R----'s girls, one after the other The one I wanted always brought a co her a slice of the cake The last of them, whose name was Victorine, as fair as day and as soft as a dove, had theabout it Mdlle R----, as equally ignorant on the subject, had represented her tohours in which I strove with ht and main to break the charm, or rather open the shell All my efforts were in vain I was exhausted at last, and I wanted to see in what the obstacle consisted I put her in the proper position, and aran my scrutiny I found a fleshy e pin's head could scarcely have gone through
Victorine encouraged er, but in vain I tried to pierce this wall, which nature had made impassable by all ordinary means I was teirl wanted ht have been dangerous, and I wisely refrained
Poor Victorine, condeeon perforone by Mdlle Cheruffini shortly after M Lepri married her, hen I said,--
”My dear child, your little Hyorous lover to enter his teeon could easilyI told Madahed and said,--
”It may prove a happy accident for Victorine; it may make her fortune”