more before her marriage would hasten my return to Rome. I promised to
take another hundred crowns to her confessor, advising her to spend the
money she had won in the lottery on her trousseau.

"I shall be at Monolo's to-night, dearest, and you must come, too; but we
must appear indifferent to each other, though our hearts be full of joy,
lest those malicious girls suspect our mutual understanding."

"It is all the more necessary to be cautious," she replied, "as I have
noticed that they suspect that we love each other."

Before we parted she thanked me for what I had done for her, and begged
me to believe that, her poverty notwithstanding, she had given herself
for love alone.

I was the last to leave the house, and I told my landlady that I should
be away for ten or twelve days. I then went to the confessor to give him
the hundred crowns I had promised my mistress. When the good old
Frenchman heard that I had made this fresh sacrifice that Mariuccia might
be able to spend her lottery winnings on her clothes, he told me that he
would call on the mother that very day and urge her to consent to her
daughter's marriage, and also learn where the young man lived. On my
return from Naples I heard that he had faithfully carried out his
promise.

I was sitting at table with Mengs when a chamberlain of the Holy Father
called. When he came in he asked M. Mengs if I lived there, and on that
gentleman pointing me out, he gave me, from his holy master, the Cross of
the Order of the Golden Spur with the diploma, and a patent under the
pontifical seal, which, in my quality as doctor of laws, made me a