me time to utter a single
word; I had nothing more to ask her. We went off, and took a gondola to
our garden. The wind was very high, it blew almost a hurricane, and the
gondola having only one rower the danger was great. C---- C----, who had
no idea of it, was playing with me to make up for the restraint under
which she had been all day; but her movements exposed the gondolier to
danger; if he had fallen into the water, nothing could have saved us, and
we would have found death on our way to pleasure. I told her to keep
quiet, but, being anxious not to frighten her, I dared not acquaint her
with the danger we were running. The gondolier, however, had not the same
reasons for sparing her feelings, and he called out to us in a stentorian
voice that, if we did not keep quiet, we were all lost. His threat had
the desired effect, and we reached the landing without mishap. I paid the
man generously, and he laughed for joy when he saw the money for which he
was indebted to the bad weather.
We spent six delightful hours in our casino; this time sleep was not
allowed to visit us. The only thought which threw a cloud over our
felicity was that, the carnival being over, we did not know how to
contrive our future meetings. We agreed, however, that on the following
Wednesday morning I should pay a visit to her brother, and that she would
come to his room as usual.
We took leave of our worthy hostess, who, entertaining no hope of seeing
us again, expressed her sorrow and overwhelmed us with blessings. I
escorted my darling, without any accident, as far as the door of her
house, and went home.
I had just risen at noon, when to my great surprise I had a visit from De
la Haye with his pupil Calvi, a handsome young man, but the very copy of
his master in everything. He walked, spoke, laughed exactly like him; it
was the same language as that of the Jesuits correct but rather harsh
French. I thought that excess of imitation perfectly scandalous, and I
could not help telling De la Haye that he ought to change his pupil's
deportment, because such servile mimicry would only expose him to bitter
raillery. As I was giving him my opinion on that subject, Bavois made his
appearance, and when he had spent an hour in the company of the young man
he was entirely of the same mind. Calvi died two or three years later. De
la Haye, who was bent upon forming pupils, became, two or three months
after Calvi's death, the tutor of the young Chevalier
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