“You have bought me some beautiful things,” said she, “but you are too lavish with your money; if you had bargained you might have saved four louis at least.”

“Very likely, dearest, but I never was any hand at a bargain.”

I took her to the play, but as she did not understand the language she got dreadfully tired, and asked me to take her home at the end of the first act, which I did very willingly.  When we got in I found a box waiting for me from M. Grimaldi.  It proved to contain twenty-four pounds of chocolate.  Costa, who had boasted of his skill in making chocolate in the Spanish fashion, received orders to make us three cups in the morning.

At nine o’clock the marquis arrived with a tradesman, who sold me some beautiful oriental materials.  I gave them to Rosalie to make two ‘mezzaro’ for herself.  The ‘mezzaro’ is a kind of hooded cloak worn by the Genoese women, as the ‘cendal’ is worn at Venice, and the ‘mantilla’ at Madrid.

I thanked M. Grimaldi for the chocolate, which was excellent; Costa was quite proud of the praise the marquis gave him.  Le Duc came in to announce a woman, whose name I did not know.

“It’s the mother of the maid I have engaged,” said M. Grimaldi.

She came in, and I saw before me a well-dressed woman, followed by a girl from twenty to twenty-four years old, who pleased me at the first glance.  The mother thanked the marquis, and presented her daughter to Rosalie, enumerating her good qualities, and telling her that she would serve her well, and walk with her when she wished to go out.

“My daughter,” she added, “speaks French, and you will find her a good, faithful, and obliging girl.”

She ended by saying that her daughter had been in service lately with a lady, and that she would be obliged if she could have her meals by herself.

The girl was named Veronique.  Rosalie told her that she was a good girl, and that the only way to be respected was to be respectable.  Veronique kissed her hand, the mother went away, and Rosalie took the girl into her room to begin her work.

I did not forget to thank the marquis, for he had evidently chosen a maid more with a view to my likings than to those of my sweetheart.  I told him that I should not fail to call on him, and he replied that he would be happy to see me at any hour, and that I should easily find him at his casino at St. Pierre d’Arena, where he often spent the night.

MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA de SEINGALT 1725-1798

Adventures in the south, Volume 4b—­return to Italy

The rare unabridged London edition of 1894 translated by Arthur Machen to which has been added the chapters discovered by Arthur Symons.