the State.--One small observation before I go further," he continued,
after a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at
the time of conception or in the months before birth can influence her
child, this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a
passion for gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for
gold which must be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life
for me, that I have never been without it; I must have gold to toy
with and finger. As a young man I always wore jewelry, and I carried
two or three hundred ducats about me wherever I went."

He drew a couple of gold coins from his pocket and showed them to me
as he spoke.

"I can tell by instinct when gold is near. Blind as I am, I stop
before a jeweler's shop windows. That passion was the ruin of me; I
took to gambling to play with gold. I was not a cheat, I was cheated,
I ruined myself. I lost all my fortune. Then the longing to see Bianca
once more possessed me like a frenzy. I stole back to Venice and found
her again. For six months I was happy; she hid me in her house and fed
me. I thought thus deliciously to finish my days. But the Provveditore
courted her, and guessed that he had a rival; we in Italy can feel
that. He played the spy upon us, and surprised us together in bed,
base wretch. You may judge what a fight for life it was; I did not
kill him outright, but I wounded him dangerously.

"That adventure broke my luck. I have never found another Bianca; I
have known great pleasures; but among the most celebrated women at the
court of Louis XV. I never found my beloved Venetian's charm, her
love, her great qualities.