was a bath well fitted to diminish the ardour of my
passion, but it made me very late in rising the next morning.

I took out the two portraits of M---- M----, one in a nun's dress, and the
other nude, as Venus. I felt sure they would be of service to me with the
nun.

I did not find the fair Zeroli in her room, so I went to the fountain,
where she reproached me with a tenderness I assessed at its proper value,
and our quarrel was made up in the course of our walk. When dinner was
over the Marquis the Prie made a bank, but as he only put down a hundred
louis I guessed that he wanted to win a lot and lose a little. I put down
also a hundred louis, and he said that it would be better sport if I did
not stake my money on one card only. I replied that I would stake a louis
on each of the thirteen.

"You will lose."

"We will see. Here is my hand on the table, and I stake a louis on each
of the thirteen cards."

According to the laws of probability, I should certainly have lost, but
fate decided otherwise and I won eighty louis. At eight o'clock I bowed
to the company, and I went as usual to the place where my new love dwelt.
I found the invalid ravishing. She said she had had a little fever, which
the country-woman pronounced to be milk fever, and that she would be
quite well and ready to get up by the next day. As I stretched out my
hand to lift the coverlet; she seized it and covered it with kisses,
telling me that she felt as if she must give me that mark of her filial
affection. She was twenty-one, and I was thirty-five. A nice daughter for
a man like me! My feelings for her were not at all of a fatherly
character. Nevertheless, I told her that her confidence in me, as shewn
by her seeing me in bed, increased my affection for her, and that I
should be grieved if I found her dressed in her nun's clothes next day.

"Then I will stop in bed," said she; "and indeed I shall be very glad to
do so, as I experience great discomfort from the heat of my woollen
habit; but I think I should please you more if I were decently dressed;
however, as you like it better, I will stop in bed."

The country-woman came in at that moment, and gave her the abbess' letter
which her nephew had just brought from Chamberi. She read it and gave it
to me. The abbess told her that she would send two lay-sisters to bring
her back to the convent, and that as she had recovered her health she
could come on-foot, and thus save money which could be