ng you, and now that you must be certain of my
innocence, allow me to congratulate you upon knowing this casino. You are
happy, and I congratulate you with all my heart. M---- M---- is, after me,
the only woman worthy of your love, the only one with whom I could
consent to share it. I used to pity you, but I do so no longer, and your
happiness makes me happy. Kiss me now."

I should have been very ungrateful, I should, even have been cruel, if I
had not then folded in my arms with the warmth of true love the angel of
goodness and beauty who was before me, thanks to the most wonderful
effort of friendship.

After assuring her that I no longer entertained any doubt of her
innocence, I told her that I thought the behaviour of her friend very
ambiguous. I said that, notwithstanding the pleasure I felt in seeing
her, the trick played upon me by her friend was a very bad one, that it
could not do otherwise than displease me greatly, because it was an
insult to me.

"I am not of your opinion," replied C---- C----.

"My dear M---- M---- has evidently contrived, somehow or other, to discover
that, before you were acquainted with her, you were my lover. She thought
very likely that you still loved me, and she imagined, for I know her
well, that she could not give us a greater proof of her love than by
procuring us, without forewarning us, that which two lovers fond of each
other must wish for so ardently. She wished to make us happy, and I
cannot be angry with her for it."

"You are right to think so, dearest, but my position is very different
from yours. You have not another lover; you could not have another; but I
being free and unable to see you, have not found it possible to resist
the charms of M---- M----. I love her madly; she knows it, and,
intelligent as she is, she must have meant to shew her contempt for me by
doing what she has done. I candidly confess that I feel hurt in the
highest degree. If she loved me as I love her, she never could have sent
you here instead of coming herself."

"I do not think so, my beloved friend. Her soul is as noble as her heart
is generous; and just in the same manner that I am not sorry to know that
you love one another and that you make each other happy, as this
beautiful casino proves to me, she does not regret our love, and she is,
on the contrary, delighted to shew us that she approves of it. Most
likely she meant to prove that she loved you for your own sake, that your
happine