education; and yet, so full of contradictions is the human heart, instead
of making amends by adopting an appearance of elegance which the state of
my finances enabled me to keep up, I did not purchase any gloves, and I
resolved to avoid her and to abandon her to the insipid and dull
gallantry of Sanzonio, who sported gloves, but whose teeth were rotten,
whose breath was putrid, who wore a wig, and whose face seemed to be
covered with shrivelled yellow parchment.

I spent my days in a continual state of rage and spite, and the most
absurd part of it all was that I felt unhappy because I could not control
my hatred for that woman whom, in good conscience, I could not find
guilty of anything. She had for me neither love nor dislike, which was
quite natural; but being young and disposed to enjoy myself I had become,
without any wilful malice on her part, an eye-sore to her and the butt of
her bantering jokes, which my sensitiveness exaggerated greatly. For all
that I had an ardent wish to punish her and to make her repent. I thought
of nothing else. At one time I would think of devoting all my
intelligence and all my money to kindling an amorous passion in her
heart, and then to revenge myself by treating her with contempt. But I
soon realized the impracticability of such a plan, for even supposing
that I should succeed in finding my way to her heart, was I the man to
resist my own success with such a woman? I certainly could not flatter
myself that I was so strong-minded. But I was the pet child of fortune,
and my position was suddenly altered.

M. D---- R---- having sent me with dispatches to M. de Condulmer, captain
of a 'galeazza', I had to wait until midnight to deliver them, and when I
returned I found that M. D---- R---- had retired to his apartment for the
night. As soon as he was visible in the morning I went to him to render
an account of my mission. I had been with him only a few minutes when his