Volume IV Part 107 (1/1)
”Alas! you can do what you like If liberty is a precious thing, it is most precious of all in love”
”There is no need for this disobedience You have inspired s my love for you shall be stifled at its birth There are two beds here, as you see; you can choose which one you will sleep in”
”Then I will sleep in that one, but I shall be very sorry if you are not so kind to me in the future as you have been in the past”
”Don't be afraid You shall not find ood friends”
Early the nextI sent the countess's letter to the bishop, and an hour afterwards, as I was at breakfast, an old priest came to ask me and the lady with me to dine withabout a lady, but the prelate, as a true Spaniard and very polite, felt that as I could not leave my real or false niece alone in the inn I should not have accepted the invitation if she had not been asked as well Probably h his footmen, who in Italy are a sort of spies, who entertain their ossip of the place A bishop wants so more than his breviary to arown old-fashi+oned and out of date; in short, I accepted the invitation, charging the priest to present htful, and treatedpreferred her own bed to mine I was pleased with her behaviour, for now that raded herself if she had acted otherwise My vanity was not even wounded, which is so often the case under similar circumstances
Self-love and prejudice prevent a wo till she has been assidiously courted, whereas I had asked her to share my bed in an off-hand manner, as if it were a mere matter of form However, I should not have done it unless it had been for the fune and the Somard, hich we had washed down the delicious supper mine host had supplied us with She had been flattered by the bishop's invitation, but she did not knohether I had accepted for her as well asout to dinner together, she ith joy Shevery well for a traveller, and at noon e came to fetch us
The prelate was a tall ht of his eighty years, he looked well and seerandee He received us with a politeness which was almost French, and whento custonificent cross of amethysts and brilliants to kiss She kissed it with devotion, saying,--
”This is what I love”
She looked at me as she said it, and the jest (which referred to her lover La Croix or Croce) surprised me
We sat down to dinner, and I found the bishop to be a pleasant and a learned entlereat politeness, which she received with all the h he often spoke to her, never once looked at her face My lord knehat danger lurked in those bright eyes, and like a prudent greybeard he took care not to fall into the snare After coffee had been served, we took leave, and in four hours we left Tortona, intending to lie at Novi
In the course of the afternoon my fair niece amused me with the wit and wisdo I led the conversation up to the bishop, and then to religion, that I ood Christian, I asked her how she could allow herself to make a jest when she kissed the prelate's cross
”It was a mere chance,” she said ”The equivocation was innocent because it was not preht it over I should never have said such a thing”
I pretended to believe her; she ht possibly be sincere She was extre more and more ardent, but my vanity kept my passion in check When she went to bed I did not kiss her, but as her bed had no screen as at Tortona, she waited until she thought I was asleep to undress herself We got to Genoa by noon the next day
Pogoot me some rooms and had forwarded me the address I visited it, and found the aparthly colish, who understand how to take their ease, call it I ordered a good dinner, and sent to tell Pogomas of my arrival