daughter
to keep her rose-bud for something better."

"To enable you to amuse yourself, my good woman; take these two sequins,"
I added. "Let your daughter enjoy herself well."

The good hostess, thoroughly amazed at the generosity of her guests, ran
in a great hurry to her daughter, while we were delighted at having laid
ourselves under the pleasant necessity of again going to bed. She came up
with her daughter, a handsome, tempting blonde, who insisted upon kissing
the hands of her benefactors.

"She is going this minute with her lover," said the mother. "He is
waiting for her; but I will not let her go alone with him, for he is not
to be trusted; I am going with them."

"That is right, my good woman; but when you come back this evening, let
the gondola wait for us; it will take us to Venice."

"What! Do you mean to remain here until we return?"

"Yes, for this is our wedding-day."

"To-day? God bless you!"

She then went to the bed, to put it to rights, and seeing the marks of my
wife's virginity she came to my dear C---- C---- and, in her joy, kissed
her, and immediately began a sermon for the special benefit of her
daughter, shewing her those marks which, in her opinion, did infinite
honour to the young bride: respectable marks, she said, which in our days
the god of Hymen sees but seldom on his altar.

The daughter, casting down her beautiful blue eyes, answered that the
same would certainly be seen on her wedding-day.

"I am certain of it," said the mother, "for I never lose sight of thee.
Go and get some water in this basin, and bring it here. This charming
bride must be in need of it."

The girl obeyed. The two women having left us, we went to bed, and four
hours of ecstatic delights passed off with wonderful rapidity. Our last
engagement would have lasted longer, if my charming sweetheart had not
taken a fancy to take my place and to reverse the position. Worn out with
happiness and enjoyment, we were going to sleep, when the hostess came to
tell us that the gondola was waiting for us. I immediately got up to open
the door, in the hope that she would amuse us with her description of the
opera; but she left that task to her daughter, who had come up with her,
and she went down again to prepare some coffee for us. The young girl
assisted my sweetheart to dress, but now and then she would wink at me in
a manner which made me think that she had more experience than her mother
imagined.

Nothing coul