to grant me
that favour, my darling, I wish to go to the opera. At all events,
recollect that I positively forbid the whites of eggs for the future, for
I would rather have a little less enjoyment and more security respecting
your health. In future, when you go to the casino of Muran, please to
enquire whether there is anybody there, and if you receive an affirmative
answer, go away. My friend will do the same. In that manner you will not
run the risk of meeting one another, but you need not observe these
precautions for long, if you wish, for my friend is extremely fond of
you, and has a great desire to make your acquaintance. He has told me
that, if he had not seen it with his own eyes, he never would have
believed that a man could run the race that you ran so splendidly the
other night, but he says that, by making love in that manner, you bid
defiance to death, for he is certain that the blood you lost comes from
the brain. But what will he say when he hears that you only laugh at the
occurrence? I am going to make you very merry: he wants to eat the salad
of whites of eggs, and he wants me to ask you for some of your vinegar,
because there is none in Venice. He said that he spent a delightful
night, in spite of his fear of the evil consequences of our amorous
sport, and he has found my own efforts superior to the usual weakness of
my sex. That may be the case, dearest browny, but I am delighted to have
done such wonders, and to have made such trial of my strength. Without
you, darling of my heart, I should have lived without knowing myself, and
I wonder whether it is possible for nature to create a woman who could
remain insensible in your arms, or rather one who would not receive new
life by your side. It is more than love that I feel for you, it is
idolatry; and my mouth, longing to meet yours, sends forth thousands of
kisses which are wasted in the air. I am panting for your divine
portrait, so as to quench by a sweet illusion the fire which devours my
amorous lips. I trust my likeness will prove equally dear to you, for it
seems to me that nature has created us for one another, and I curse the
fatal instant in which I raised an invincible barrier between us. You
will find enclosed the key of my bureau. Open it, and take a parcel on
which you will see written, 'For my darling.' It is a small present which
my friend wishes me to offer you in exchange for the beautiful night-cap
that you gave me. Adieu."

The small