loved him but I was too honest to be willing to satisfy his desires . . . .
Some months afterward, I came to know the Count de M . . . ; he was not
so handsome as K . . . , but he possessed every possible art for seducing
a girl; I did everything for him, but I never loved him as much as his
friend. In fine, to tell you all my giddinesses in a few words, I set
everything right again with K . . . . and got myself into a quarrel with
M . . . ., then I left K. . . . and returned to M . . . ., but at the
house of the latter there was always an officer who pleased me more than
both the two others and who sometimes conducted me to the house; then we
found ourselves at the house of a friend, and it is of this same officer
that I am ill. So, my dear friend, that is all. I do not seek to justify
my past conduct; on the contrary, I know well that I have acted badly....
I am much afflicted at being the cause of your remaining away from Venice
during the Carnival . . . . I hope to see you soon again and am, with
much love,

"Monsieur, your sincere "Caton M. . . ."

16th July 1786. "I have spoken with the Abbe Da Ponte. He invited me to
come to his house because, he said, he had something to tell me for you.
I went there, but was received so coldly that I am resolved not to go
there again. Also, Mlle. Nanette affected an air of reserve and took at
on herself to read me lessons on what she was pleased to call my
libertinism . . . . I beg that you will write nothing more about me to
these two very dangerous personages.... Just now I will tell you of a
little trick which I played on you, which without doubt deserves some
punishment. The young, little Kasper, whom you formerly loved, came to
ask me for the address of her dear Monsieur de Casanova, so that she
could write a very tender letter full of recollections. I had too much
politeness to wish to refuse a pretty girl, who was once the favorite of