Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/191

Rh "Not one."

"May I return on the morrow? I go hence on the following day."

"Come; but I shall not descend alone, for others might have suspicious. I will bring my little one with me, to save appearances. Come after dining, but to the other parlour."

Had I not known M—— M—— at Aix, her religious ideas would have astonished me; but such was her character. She loved God, and did not believe that the kind Father who made us with passions would be too severe because we had not the strength to subdue them. I returned to the inn, annoyed that the lovely nun would have no more to do with me.……

''After the interval of a night, Casanova returns to the convent, and, announcing his presence, enters the parlour which M—— M—— has indicated. The text continues:—''

……She soon descended with her pretty young boarder, who had not yet completed her twelfth year, but was very tall, strong and well-developed for her age. Gentleness, liveliness, candour, and wit were united in her features, and gave her an expression of exquisite charm. She wore a well-made corset which disclosed a white throat, to which fancy easily added the two spheres which would soon appear there. Her shapely head, whence hung two superb raven tresses, and her ivory throat indicated what might be concealed, and my vagrant imagination formed her into a budding Venus.

I began by telling her that she was very pretty,