him how to live."

"Ask all, but leave me my son. You must know that I never kiss him for
fear of my giving way to excessive emotion. I wish you knew how good and
pure he is, and how well he loves me, I could not refuse him anything."

"What will people say in Venice when they see Casanova again, who escaped
from The Leads and has become twenty years younger?"

"You are going to Venice, then, for the Ascensa?"

"Yes, and you are going to Rome?"

"And to Naples, to see my friend the Duke de Matalone."

"I know him well. He has already had a son by the daughter of the Duke de
Bovino, whom he married. She must be a charming woman to have made a man
of him, for all Naples knew that he was impotent."

"Probably, she only knew the secret of making him a father."

"Well, it is possible."

We spent the time by talking with interest on various topics till
Cesarino and the husband came back. The dear child finished his conquest
of me at supper; he had a merry random wit, and all the Neapolitan
vivacity. He sat down at the clavier, and after playing several pieces
with the utmost skill he began to sing Neapolitan songs which made us all
laugh. Therese only looked at him and me, but now and again she embraced
her husband, saying, that in love alone lies happiness.

I thought then, and I think now, that this day was one of the happiest I
have ever spent.

CHAPTER VII

The Corticelli--The Jew Manager Beaten--The False Charles
Ivanoff and the Trick He Played Me--I Am Ordered to Leave
Tuscany--I Arrive at Rome--My Brother Jean

[Illustration: Chapter 7]

At nine o'clock the next morning, the Abbe Gama was announced. The first
thing he did was to shed tears of joy (as he said) at seeing me so well
and prosperous after so many years. The reader will guess that the abbe
addressed me in the most flattering terms, and perhaps he may know that
one may be clever, experienced in the ways of the world, and even
distrustful of flattery, but yet one's self-love, ever on the watch,
listens to the flatterer, and thinks him pleasant. This polite and
pleasant abbe, who had become extremely crafty from having lived all his
days amongst the high dignitaries at the court of the 'Servus Servorum
Dei' (the best school of strategy), was not altogether an ill-disposed
man, but both his disposition and his profession conspired to make him
inquisitive; in fine, such as I have depicted him in the first volume of
these Memo