might have something to say concerning his sister, I went to him
at once.

I found him with Madame C----, and after congratulating him upon his
release from prison I asked him for the news he had to communicate.

"I am certain," he said, "that my sister is in a convent, and I shall be
able to tell you the name of it when I return to Venice."

"You will oblige me," I answered, pretending not to know anything.

But his news had only been a pretext to make me come to him, and his
eagerness to communicate it had a very different object in view than the
gratification of my curiosity.

"I have sold," he said to me, "my privileged contract for three years for
a sum of fifteen thousand florins, and the man with whom I have made the
bargain took me out of prison by giving security for me, and advanced me
six thousand florins in four letters of exchange."

He shewed me the letters of exchange, endorsed by a name which I did not
know, but which he said was a very good one, and he continued,

"I intend to buy six thousand florins worth of silk goods from the looms
of Vicenza, and to give in payment to the merchants these letters of
exchange. I am certain of selling those goods rapidly with a profit of
ten per cent. Come with us to Vicenza; I will give you some of my goods
to the amount of two hundred sequins, and thus you will find yourself
covered for the guarantee which you have been kind enough to give to the
jeweller for the ring. We shall complete the transaction within
twenty-four hours."

I did not feel much inclination for the trip, but I allowed myself to be
blinded by the wish to cover the amount which I had guaranteed, and which
I had no doubt I would be called upon to pay some day or other.

"If I do not go with him," I said to myself "he will sell the goods at a
loss of twenty-five per cent., and I shall get nothing."

I promised to accompany him. He shewed me several letters of
recommendation for the best houses in Vicenza, and our departure was
fixed for early the next morning. I was at the "Star Hotel" by daybreak.
A carriage and four was ready; the hotel-keeper came up with his bill,
and P---- C---- begged me to pay it. The bill amounted to five sequins;
four of which had been advanced in cash by the landlord to pay the driver
who had brought them from Fusina. I saw that it was a put-up thing, yet I
paid with pretty good grace, for I guessed that the scoundrel had left
Venice without a penny. We reached