ct not to close my eyes throughout
the night, and I shall not rest until I have your decision. In case you
should object to shew your tenderness in the presence of a third person,
I will take whatever determination love may suggest to me. But I hope you
will consent, and even if you were not to perform the character of an
ardent lover in a masterly manner, it would not be of any consequence. I
will let my friend believe that your love has not reached its apogee"

That letter certainly took me by surprise, but all things considered,
thinking that my part was better than the one accepted by the lover, I
laughed heartily at the proposal. I confess, however, that I should not
have laughed if I had not known the nature of the individual who was to
be the witness of my amorous exploits. Understanding all the anxiety of
my friend, and wishing to allay it, I immediately wrote to her the
following lines:

"You wish me, heavenly creature, to answer you yes or no, and I, full of
love for you, want my answer to reach you before noon, so that you may
dine in perfect peace.

"I will spend the last night of the year with you, and I can assure you
that the friend, to whom we will give a spectacle worthy of Paphos and
Amathos, shall see or hear nothing likely to make him suppose that I am
acquainted with his secret. You may be certain that I will play my part
not as a novice but as a master. If it is man's duty to be always the
slave of his reason; if, as long as he has control over himself, he ought
not to act without taking it for his guide, I cannot understand why a man
should be ashamed to shew himself to a friend at the very moment that he
is most favoured by love and nature.

"Yet I confess that you would have been wrong if you had confided the
secret to me the first time, and that most likely I should then have
refused to grant you that mark of my compliance, not because I loved you
less then than I do now, but there are such strange tastes in nature that
I might have imagined that your lover's ruling taste was to enjoy the
sight of an ardent and frantic couple in the midst of amorous connection,
and in that case, conceiving an unfavourable opinion of you, vexation
might have frozen the love you had just sent through my being. Now,
however, the case is very different. I know all I possess in you, and,
from all you have told me of your lover, I am well disposed towards him,
and I believe him to be my friend. If a feeling of mod