, some plain, and
all curious to know who I was. The fair Esther, who knew no more than my
name, could not satisfy them. All at once seeing a fair young girl a
little way off she pointed her out to me and asked me my opinion of her.
Naturally enough I replied that I did not care for fair girls.

"All the same, I must introduce you to her, for she may be a relation of
yours. Her name is the same; that is her father over there:"

"M. Casanova," said she, speaking to a gentleman, "I beg to introduce to
you M. Casanova, a friend of my father's."

"Really? The same name; I wish, sir, you were my friend, as we are,
perhaps, related. I belong to the Naples branch."

"Then we are related, though distantly, as my father came from Parma.
Have you your pedigree?"

"I ought to have such a thing, but to tell you the truth, I don't think
much of such matters. Besants d'or and such heraldic moneys are not
currency in a mercantile republic."

"Pedigree-hunting is certainly a somewhat foolish pursuit; but it may
nevertheless afford us a few minutes' amusement without our making any
parade of our ancestry."

"With all my heart."

"I shall have the honour of calling on you to-morrow, and I will bring my
family-tree with me. Will you be vexed if you find the root of your
family also?"

"Not at all; I shall be delighted. I will call on you myself to-morrow.
May I ask if you are a business man?"

"No, I am a financial agent in the employ of the French ministry. I am
staying with M. Pels."

M. Casanova made a sign to his daughter and introduced me to her. She was
Esther's dearest friend, and I sat down between them, and the concert
began.

After a fine symphony, a concerto for the violin, another for the
hautbois, the Italian singer whose repute was so great and who was styled
Madame Trend made her appearance. What was my surprise when I recognized
in her Therese Imer, wife of the dancer Pompeati, whose name the reader
may remember. I had made her acquaintance eighteen years ago, when the
old senator Malipiero had struck me because we were playing together. I
had seen her again at Venice in 1753, and then our pastime had been of a
more serious nature. She had gone to Bayreuth, where she had been the
margrave's mistress. I had promised to go and see her, but C---- C---- and
my fair nun M---- M---- had left me neither the time nor the wish to do so.
Soon after I was put under the Leads, and then I had other things to
think about