at
nothing serious had taken place between us, tried in vain to solve the
enigma. 'No doubt he is afraid of getting you with child,' he said, 'and
of thus being obliged to marry you.' I began to be of the same opinion,
but I thought it a strange line for a man in love to take.

"M. de Nesle, an officer in the French Guards, who had a pretty wife I
had met in the country, went to your brother's to call on me. Not finding
me there he asked why we did not live together. Your brother replied
openly that our marriage had been a mere jest. M. de Nesle then came to
me to enquire if this were the truth, and when he heard that it was he
asked me how I would like him to make Casanova marry me. I answered that
I should be delighted, and that was enough for him. He went again to your
brother, and told him that his wife would never have associated with me
on equal terms if I had not been introduced to her as a married woman;
that the deceit was an insult to all the company at the country-house,
which must be wiped out by his marrying me within the week or by fighting
a duel. M. de Nesle added that if he fell he would be avenged by all the
gentlemen who had been offended in the same way. Casanova replied,
laughing, that so far from fighting to escape marrying me, he was ready
to break a lance to get me. 'I love her,' he said, 'and if she loves me I
am quite ready to give her my hand. Be kind enough,' he added, 'to
prepare the way for me, and I will marry her whenever you like.'

"M. de Nesle embraced him, and promised to see to everything; he brought
me the joyful news, and in a week all was over. M. de Nesle gave us a
splendid supper on our wedding-day, and since then I have had the title
of his wife. It is an empty title, however, for, despite the ceremony and
the fatal yes, I am no wife, for your brother is completely impotent. I
am an unhappy wretch, and it is all his fault, for he ought to have known
his own condition. He has deceived me horribly."

"But he was obliged to act as he did; he is more to be pitied than to be
blamed. I also pity you, but I think you are in the wrong, for after his
sleeping with you for a month without giving any proof of his manhood you
might have guessed the truth. Even if you had been a perfect novice, M.
de Sauci ought to have known what was the matter; he must be aware that
it is beyond the power of man to sleep beside a pretty woman, and to
press her naked body to his breast without becoming, i