he shewed me his horses and carriages, begging
me to take a drive with his wife and come back to supper, which, as he
said, was his best meal.

When we were in the carriage together, the necessity of talking about
something led me to ask the lady by what happy chain of circumstances she
found herself the wife of Calsabigi.

"His real wife is still alive, so I have not the misfortune of occupying
that position, but everyone in Berlin thinks I am his lawful wife. Three
years ago I was deprived of my mother and the means of livelihood at one
stroke, for my mother had an annuity. None of my relations were rich
enough to help me, and wishing to live virtuously above all things I
subsisted for two years on the sale of my mother's furniture, boarding
with a worthy woman who made her living by embroidery. I learnt her art,
and only went out to mass on Sundays. I was a prey to melancholy, and
when I had spent all I had I went to M. Brea, a Genoese, on whom I
thought I could rely. I begged him to get me a place as a mere
waiting-maid, thinking that I was tolerably competent for such a
position. He promised to do what he could for me, and five or six days
afterwards he made me the following proposal:

"He read me a letter from Calsabigi, of whom I had never heard, in which
he charged him to send a virtuous young lady to Berlin. She must be of
good birth, good education, and pleasant appearance, as when his aged and
infirm wife died he intended to marry her.

"As such a person would most probably be badly off, Calsabigi begged M.
Brea to give her fifty Louis to buy clothes and linen and fifty Louis to
journey to Berlin with a maid. M. Brea was also authorized to promise
that the young lady should hold the position of Calsabigi's wife, and be
presented in that character to all his friends; that she should have a
waiting-maid, a carriage, an allowance of clothes, and a certain monthly
amount as pin-money to be spent as she chose. He promised, if the
arrangement was not found suitable, to set her free at the end of a year,
giving her a hundred Louis, and leaving her in possession of whatever
money she might have saved, and such clothes and jewels as he might have
given her; in fine, if the lady agreed to live with him till he was able
to marry her, Calsabigi promised to execute a deed of gift in her favour
to the amount of ten thousand crowns which the public would believe to be
her dowry, and if he died before being able to marry