“Our confessor is a wise old man.”
“I shall leave thee, then, without a single kiss?”
“Not one.”
“May I return on the morrow? I go hence on the following day.”
“Come; but I shall not descend alone,[101] for others might have suspicions. I will bring my little one with me, to save appearances. Come after dining, but to the other parlour.”
Had I not known M—M—at Aix, her religious ideas would have astonished me; but such was her character. She loved God, and did not believe that the kind Father who made us with passions would be too severe because we had not the strength to subdue them. I returned to the inn, annoyed that the lovely nun would have no more to do with me....
After the interval of a night, Casanova returns to the convent, and, announcing his presence, enters the parlour which M—M—has indicated. The text continues:—
... She soon descended with her pretty young boarder, who ... had not yet completed her twelfth year, but was very tall, strong and well-developed for her age. Gentleness, liveliness, candour, and wit were united in her features, and gave her an expression of exquisite charm. She wore a well-made corset which disclosed a white throat, to which fancy easily added the two spheres which would soon appear there. Her shapely head, whence hung two superb raven tresses, and her ivory throat indicated what might be concealed, and my vagrant imagination formed her into a budding Venus.
I began by telling her that she was very pretty, and that she would make happy the husband for whom God had destined her. This compliment, I felt assured, would cause her to blush. ‘Tis cruel, but thus it is that the language of seduction ever beginneth. A girl of her years who doth not blush at the mention of marriage is either a fool or already expert in profligacy. Despite this, however, the blush which mounteth to a young girl’s cheek at the onset of a startling idea is indeed a problem. Whence doth it come? Perchance from pure simplicity; perchance from shame; often from a mixture of both feelings. Cometh, then, the combat ‘twixt vice and virtue, and usually ‘tis virtue which hath to succumb. The desires—true servants of vice—easily attain their ends. As I knew the young boarder from M—M—’s description, I could not be unaware of the source of those blushes which did but enhance her youthful charms.
Pretending not to notice aught, I conversed for a while with M—M—, then returned to the assault. She had regained her calm.