Volume VI Part 74 (1/2)

The next day I amused the princess and the cardinal by a circumstantial account of what had happened

”You missed your opportunity,” said the princess

”I don't think so,” said the cardinal, ”I believe, on the contrary, that he has made his victory , I went to the convent where the superioress gaveairls till three o'clock in theThey had told her hoe had eaten the oysters, and she said it was an a idea I admired her candour, simplicity, or philosophy, whichever you like to call it

After these preliminaries, she told h the influence of the princess, a dispensation to marry without the publication of banns a o only that there was a woman who pretended to have claims upon him If banns were published this woo on forever

”If you do this,” she concluded, ”you will have theEmilie happy”

I took down the man's name, and promised to do my best with the princess

”Are you still determined to cure yourself of your love for Arin the cure till Lent”

”I congratulate you; the carnival is unusually long this year”

The next day I spoke of the matter to the princess The first requisite was a certificate fro that the man was free to marry The cardinal said that the ed if he could bring forward two good witnesses ould swear that he was unmarried

I told the superioress what the cardinal said, and she wrote to theto the superioress and E

He commended himself to my protection, and said that before hesix hundred crowns

The convent would give hirant of two hundred rant, but I first contrived to have another supper with Ar to take her to the co her astray froht her to dread er

CHAPTER XVII

The Florentine--Marriage of Emilie--Scholastica--Armelline at the Ball

Before the supper I had loved Armelline to such an extent that I had determined to see her no more, but after it I felt that I must obtain her or die I saw that she had only consented to arded them as e of this way of looking at it to go as far as I could

I begin to play the part of indifferent to the best ofat her with an expression of polite interest I often pretended to forget to kiss her hand, while I kissed E positive marks of her affection I should stay at Civita Vecchia for some weeks after she was married I would not see Armelline's horror, who could not bear me to take a fancy to Emilie

Emilie said that she would be more at liberty when she wasme any hopes, told her sharply that a irl