bride must be in need of it."

The girl obeyed. The two women having left us, we went to bed, and four
hours of ecstatic delights passed off with wonderful rapidity. Our last
engagement would have lasted longer, if my charming sweetheart had not
taken a fancy to take my place and to reverse the position. Worn out with
happiness and enjoyment, we were going to sleep, when the hostess came to
tell us that the gondola was waiting for us. I immediately got up to open
the door, in the hope that she would amuse us with her description of the
opera; but she left that task to her daughter, who had come up with her,
and she went down again to prepare some coffee for us. The young girl
assisted my sweetheart to dress, but now and then she would wink at me in
a manner which made me think that she had more experience than her mother
imagined.

Nothing could be more indiscreet than the eyes of my beloved mistress;
they wore the irrefutable marks of her first exploits. It is true that
she had just been fighting a battle which had positively made her a
different being to what she was before the engagement.

We took some hot coffee, and I told our hostess to get us a nice dinner
for the next day; we then left in the gondola. The dawn of day was
breaking when we landed at St. Sophia's Square, in order to set the
curiosity of the gondoliers at fault, and we parted happy, delighted, and
certain that we were thoroughly married. I went to bed, having made up my
mind to compel M. de Bragadin, through the power of the oracle, to obtain
legally for me the hand of my beloved C---- C----. I remained in bed until
noon, and spent the rest of the day in playing with ill luck, as if Dame
Fortune had wished to warn me that she did not approve of my love.