seen, haphazard meetings with old friends have always been
the happiest moments of my life.

We all remained for some time dumb with delight. M. de R. was the first
to break the silence by giving me a cordial embrace. We burst out into
mutual excuses, he for having imagined that there might be other
Casanovas in Italy, and I for not having ascertained his name. He made me
take pot-luck with him the same day, and we seemed as if we had never
parted. The Republic had given him this employ--a very lucrative one--and
he was only sorry that it would expire in two years. He told me he was
delighted to be able to be of use to me, and begged me to consider he was
wholly at my service. He was delighted to hear that I should be engaged
in seeing my work through the press for three or four months, and seemed
vexed when I told him that I could not accept his hospitality more than
once a week as my labours would be incessant.

Madame de R---- could scarcely recover from her surprise. It was nine
years since I had seen her at Soleure, and then I thought her beauty must
be at its zenith; but I was wrong, she was still more beautiful and I
told her so. She shewed me her only child, who had been born four years
after my departure. She cherished the child as the apple of her eye, and
seemed likely to spoil it; but I heard, a few years ago, that this child
is now an amiable and accomplished man.

In a quarter of an hour Madame de R---- informed me of all that had
happened at Soleure since my departure. Lebel had gone to Besancon, where
he lived happily with his charming wife.

She happened to observe in a casual way that I no longer looked as young
as I had done at Soleure, and this made me regulate my conduct in a
manner I might not otherwise have done. I did not let her beauty carry me
away; I resisted the effect of her charms, and I was content to enjoy her
friendship, and to be worthy of the friendship of her good husband.

The work on which I was engaged demanded all my care and attention, and a
love affair would have wasted most of my time.

I began work the next morning, and save for an hour's visit from M. de
R---- I wrote on till nightfall. The next day I had the first proof-sheet
with which I was well enough pleased.

I spent the whole of the next month in my room, working assiduously, and
only going out to mass on feast days, to dine with M. de R----, and to
walk with his wife and her child.

At the end of a month my fi