I could not help laughing at the axiom, Things
which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another, for the
miniature was like M. M. and like the courtezan, and yet the two women
were not like each other. Murray agreed with me, and we spent an hour in
a philosophical discussion on the matter. As the false M. M. was named
Innocente, we expressed a wish to know how her name agreed with her
profession, and how the knave had induced her to play the part she had
taken; and she told us the following story:

"I have known Count Capsucefalo for two years, and have found him useful,
for, though he has given me no money, he has made me profit largely
through the people he has introduced to me. About the end of last autumn
he came to me one day, and said that if I could make up as a nun with
some clothes he would get me, and in that character pass a night with an
Englishman, I should be the better by five hundred sequins. 'You need not
be afraid of anything,' said he, 'as I myself will take you to the casino
where the dupe will be awaiting you, and I will come and take you back to
your imaginary convent towards the end of the night. He shewed me how I
must behave, and told me what to reply if my lover asked any questions
about the discipline of the convent.

"I liked the plot, gentlemen, and I told him I was ready to carry it out.
And be pleased to consider that there are not many women of my profession
who would hesitate over a chance of getting five hundred sequins. Finding
the scheme both agreeable and profitable, I promised to play my part with
the greatest skill. The bargain was struck, and he gave me full
instructions as to my dialogue. He told me that the Englishman could only
talk about my convent and any lovers I might have had; that on the latter
point I was to cut him short, and to answer with a laugh that I did not
know what he was talking about, and even to tell him that I was a nun in
appearance only, and that in the course of toying I might let him see my
hair. 'That,' said Capsucefalo, 'won't prevent him from thinking you a
nun--yes! and the very nun he is amorous of, for he will have made up his
mind that you cannot possibly be anyone else.' Seizing the point of the
jest, I did not take the trouble to find out the name of the nun I was to
represent, nor the convent whence I was to come; the only thing in my
head was the five hundred sequins. So little have I troubled about aught
else that, though I passed