, but everything was carefully hidden from the gaze. She
made her sister sit down beside her and work, but when I saw that she was
obliged to hold the stuff close to her face I told her that she should
spare her eyes, for that night at all events, and with that she
obediently put the work down.

The marquis came as usual, and like myself he thought Annette, whom he
had never seen before, an astonishing miniature beauty. Taking advantage
of his age and high rank, the voluptuous old man dared to pass his hand
over her breast, and she, who was too respectful to cross my lord, let
him do it without making the slightest objection. She was a compound of
innocence and coquetry.

The woman who shewing little succeeds in making a man want to see more,
has accomplished three-fourths of the task of making him fall in love
with her; for is love anything else than a kind of curiosity? I think
not; and what makes me certain is that when the curiosity is satisfied
the love disappears. Love, however, is the strongest kind of curiosity in
existence, and I was already curious about Annette.

M. Grimaldi told Veronique that Rosalie wished her to stay with me till I
left Genoa, and she was as much astonished at this as I was.

"Be kind enough to tell her," said I to the marquis, "that Veronique has
anticipated her wishes and has got her sister Annette to stay with her."

"Two are always better than one, my dear fellow," replied the crafty
Genoese.

After these remarks we left the two sisters together and went into my
room, where he said,--

"Your Rosalie is contented, and you ought to congratulate yourself on
having made her happy, as I am sure she will be. The only thing that
vexes me is that you can't go and see her yourself with any decency."

"You are in love with her, my lord."

"I confess that I am, but I am an old man, and it vexes me."

"That's no matter, she will love you tenderly; and if Petri ever becomes
her husband, I am sure she will never be anything more than a good friend
to him. Write to me at Florence and tell me how she receives him."

"Stay here for another three days; the two beauties there will make the
time seem short."

"It's exactly for that reason that I want to go tomorrow. I am afraid of
Veronique."

"I shouldn't have thought that you would have allowed any woman to
frighten you."

"I am afraid she has cast her fatal nets around me, and when the time
comes she will be strictly moral. Rosalie is