up."

"What time is it now, then?"

"Past one."

The girl astonished me. She was no longer the shy Tonine of last night;
she had that exultant air which happiness bestows, and the look of
pleasure which the delights of love give to a young beauty. I could not
understand how I had escaped from doing homage to her beauty when I first
saw her at her mother's house. But I was then too deeply in love with
C---- C----; I was in too great distress; and, moreover, Tonine was then
unformed. I got up, and making her bring me a cup of coffee I asked her
to keep the dinner back for a couple of hours.

I found M---- M----'s letter affectionate, but not so interesting as it
would have been the day before. I set myself to answer it, and was almost
thunderstruck to find the task, for the first time, a painful one.
However, my short journey to Venice supplied me with talk which covered
four pages.

I had an exquisite dinner with my charming Tonine. Looking at her as at
the same time my wife, my mistress, and my housekeeper, I was delighted
to find myself made happy at such a cheap rate. We spent the whole day at
the table talking of our love, and giving each other a thousand little
marks of it; for there is no such rich and pleasant matter for
conversation as when they who talk are parties to an amorous suit. She
told with charming simplicity that she knew perfectly well that she could
not make me amorous of her, because I loved another, and that her only
hope was therefore in a surprise, and that she had foreseen the happy