Memoirs of Casanova — Volume 03: Military Career by Giacomo Casanova
page 85 of 150 (56%)
page 85 of 150 (56%)
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was ready to sail, to conceal him on board; but the fool, instead of
accepting my offer, loaded me with insults. He was courting Madame Sagredo, who treated him very well, feeling proud that a French prince should have given her the preference over all the other ladies. One day that she was dining in great ceremony at M. D---- R-----'s house, she asked me why I had advised the prince to run away. "I have it from his own lips," she added, "and he cannot make out your obstinacy in believing him an impostor." "I have given him that advice, madam, because my heart is good, and my judgment sane." "Then we are all of us as many fools, the proveditore included?" "That deduction would not be right, madam. An opinion contrary to that of another does not necessarily make a fool of the person who entertains it. It might possibly turn out, in ten or twelve days, that I have been entirely mistaken myself, but I should not consider myself a fool in consequence. In the mean time, a lady of your intelligence must have discovered whether that man is a peasant or a prince by his education and manners. For instance, does he dance well?" "He does not know one step, but he is the first to laugh about it; he says he never would learn dancing." "Does he behave well at table?" |
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