M. Dandolo, rather surprised, asked a second question: he wished Paralis to give his reasons for the denial.
I formed the cabalistic pile, and brought out this answer:
“I asked Casanova’s opinion, and as I find it opposed to the proposal made by De la Haye, I do not wish to hear any more about it.”
Oh! wonderful power of self-delusion! This worthy man, pleased at being able to throw the odium of a refusal on me, left me perfectly satisfied. I had no idea of the nature of the affair to which he had been alluding, and I felt no curiosity about it; but it annoyed me that a Jesuit should interfere and try to make my friends do anything otherwise than through my instrumentality, and I wanted that intriguer to know that my influence was greater than his own.
After that, I dressed, masked myself, and went to the opera, where I sat down to a faro-table and lost all my money. Fortune was determined to shew me that it does not always agree with love. My heart was heavy, I felt miserable; I went to bed. When I woke in the morning, I saw De la Haye come into my room with a beaming countenance, and, assuming an air of devoted friendship, he made a great show of his feelings towards me. I knew what to think of it all, and I waited for the ‘denouement’.
“My dear friend,” he said to me at last, “why did you dissuade M. Dandolo from doing what I had insinuated to him?”
“What had you insinuated to him?”
“You know well enough.”
“If I knew it, I would not ask you”
“M. Dandolo himself told me that you had advised him against it.”