oysters, and she said it was an
amusing idea. I admired her candour, simplicity, or philosophy, whichever
you like to call it.

After these preliminaries, she told me that I could make Emilie happy by
obtaining, through the influence of the princess, a dispensation to marry
without the publication of banns a merchant of Civita Vecchia, who would
have married her long ago only that there was a woman who pretended to
have claims upon him. If banns were published this woman would institute
a suit which might go on forever.

"If you do this," she concluded, "you will have the merit of making
Emilie happy."

I took down the man's name, and promised to do my best with the princess.

"Are you still determined to cure yourself of your love for Armelline?"

"Yes, but I shall not begin the cure till Lent."

"I congratulate you; the carnival is unusually long this year."

The next day I spoke of the matter to the princess. The first requisite
was a certificate from the Bishop of Civita Vecchia, stating that the man
was free to marry. The cardinal said that the man must come to Rome, and
that the affair could be managed if he could bring forward two good
witnesses who would swear that he was unmarried.

I told the superioress what the cardinal said, and she wrote to the
merchant, and a few days after I saw him talking to the superioress and
Emilie through the grating.

He commended himself to my protection, and said that before he married he
wanted to be sure of having six hundred crowns.

The convent would give him four hundred crowns, so we should have to
obtain a grant of two hundred more.

I succeeded in getting the grant, but I first contrived to have another
supper with Armelline, who asked me every morning when I was going to
take her to the comic opera. I said I was afraid of turning her astray
from the path of duty, but she replied that experience had taught her to
dread me no longer.

CHAPTER XVII

The Florentine--Marriage of Emilie--Scholastica--Armelline at the Ball

Before the supper I had loved Armelline to such an extent that I had
determined to see her no more, but after it I felt that I must obtain her
or die. I saw that she had only consented to my small liberties because
she regarded them as mere jokes, of no account, and I resolved to take
advantage of this way of looking at it to go as far as I could. I begin
to play the part of indifferent to the best of my ability, only visiting
her eve