I am. All
those girls you saw yesterday would give me all they have if I asked
them, as they are all expecting me to make them a handsome present in the
course of the week, but I won't abuse their trust in me. But I am afraid
I shall be obliged to cheat the Jew, who wants me to give him three
thousand sequins for this ring, as I know it is only worth one thousand."

"He will send the police after you."

"I defy him to do whatever he likes."

The ring was set with a straw-coloured diamond of nine or ten carats. He
begged me to keep his secret as we parted. I did not feel any sentiments
of pity for this extravagant madman, as I only saw in him a man
unfortunate by his own fault, whose fate would probably make him end his
days in a prison unless he had the courage to blow his brains out.

I went to Momolo's in the evening, and found the intended husband of my
fair Mariuccia there, but not the lady herself. I heard she had sent word
to the 'scopatore santissimo' that, as her father had come from
Palestrina to be present at her wedding, she could not come to supper. I
admired her subtlety. A young girl has no need of being instructed in
diplomacy, nature and her own heart are her teachers, and she never
blunders. At supper I studied the young man, and found him eminently
suitable for Mariuccia; he was handsome, modest, and intelligent, and
whatever he said was spoken frankly and to the point.

He told me before Momolo's daughter, Tecla, that he would have married
her if she had possessed means to enable him to open his shop, and that
he had reason to thank God for having met Maria, whose confessor had been
such a true spiritual father to her. I asked him where the wedding
festivities were to take place, and he told me they were to be at his
father's house, on the other side of the Tiber. As his father, who kept a
garden, was poor, he had furnished him with ten crowns to defray the
expenses.

I wanted to give him the ten crowns, but how was I to do it? It would
have betrayed me.

"Is your father's garden a pretty one?" I asked.

"Not exactly pretty, but very well kept. As he owns the land, he has
separated a plot which he wants to sell; it would bring in twenty crowns
a year, and I should be as happy as a cardinal if I could buy it."

"How much will it cost?"

"It's a heavy price; two hundred crowns."

"Why, that's cheap! Listen to me. I have met your future bride at this
house, and I have found her all worthy of