o Venice without
following her."

"I will take you to France, and try to get you employed by some bishop."

"Employed! I was meant by nature to be employed by none but God."

"You proud fool! Marcoline rightly called you a whiner. Who is your God?
How do you serve Him? You are either a hypocrite or an idiot. Do you
think that you, a priest, serve God by decoying an innocent girl away
from her home? Do you serve Him by profaning the religion you do not even
understand? Unhappy fool! do you think that with no talent, no
theological learning, and no eloquence, you can be a Protestant minister.
Take care never to come to my house, or I will have you expelled from
Genoa."

"Well, well, take me to Paris, and I will see what my brother Francis can
do for me; his heart is not so hard as yours."

"Very good! you shall go to Paris, and we will start from here in three
or four days. Eat and drink to your heart's content, but remain indoors;
I will let you know when we are going. I shall have my niece, my
secretary, and my valet with me. We shall travel by sea."

"The sea makes me sick."

"That will purge away some of your bad humours."

When I got home I told Marcoline what had passed between us.

"I hate him!" said she; "but I forgive him, since it is through him I
know you."

"And I forgive him, too, because unless it had been for him I should
never have seen you. But I love you, and I shall die unless you satisfy
my desires."

"Never; for I know I should be madly in love with you, and then you would
leave me, and I should be miserable again."

"I will never leave you."

"If you will swear that, take me into France and make me all your own.
Here you must continue living with Annette; besides, I have got your
niece to make love to."

The pleasant part of the affair was that my niece was equally taken with
her, and had begged me to let her take meals with us and sleep with her.
As I had a prospect of being at their lascivious play, I willingly
consented, and henceforth she was always present at the table. We enjoyed
her company immensely, for she told us side-splitting tales which kept us
at table till it was time to go to Rosalie's, where my niece's adorer was
certain to be awaiting us.

The next day, which was Holy Thursday, Rosalie came with us to see the
processions. I had Rosalie and Marcoline with me, one on each arm, veiled
in their mezzaros, and my niece was under the charge of her lover. The
day after