"No, I haven't. I am quite well, but all the same I shall have them till
you give me back my jewel-casket."

"You are getting wicked, my poor child; this comes of following your
mother's advice. As for the casket, if you are going to behave like this,
probably you will have it."

"I will reveal all."

"You will not be believed; and I shall send you back to Bologna without
letting you take any of the presents which Madame d'Urfe has given you."

"You ought to have given me back the casket when I declared myself with
child."

Signora Laura told me that this was only too true, though I was not the
father.

"Who is, then?" I asked.

"Count N----, whose mistress she was at Prague."

It did not seem probable, as she had no symptoms of pregnancy; still it
might be so. I was obliged to plot myself to bring the plots of these two
rascally women to nought, and without saying anything to them I shut
myself up with Madame d'Urfe to enquire of the oracle concerning the
operation which was to make her happy.

After several answers, more obscure than any returned from the oracular
tripod at Delphi, the interpretation of which I left to the infatuated