The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 18: Return to NaplesCasanova, Giacomo
History
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 18: Return to Naples
Casanova, Giacomo
Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798; Europe -- History -- 18th century -- Biography
I agreed to this arrangement, and she shut me in. I examined the door,
and discovered a small chink between the boards. I got on a stool, and
saw Leah sitting on a sofa opposite to me engaged in undressing herself.
She took off her shift and wiped her breasts and her feet with a towel,
and just as she had taken off her breeches, and was as naked as my hand,
one of her rings happened to slip off her finger, and rolled under the
sofa. She got up, looked to right and left, and then stooped to search
under the sofa, and to do this she had to kneel with her head down. When
she got back to couch, the towel came again into requisition, and she
wiped herself all over in such a manner that all her charms were revealed
to my eager eyes. I felt sure that she knew I was a witness of all these
operations, and she probably guessed what a fire the sight would kindle
in my inflammable breast.
At last her toilette was finished, and she let me out. I clasped her in
my arms, with the words, "I have seen everything." She pretended not to
believe me, so I chewed her the chink, and was going to obtain my just
dues, when the accursed Moses came in. He must have been blind or he
would have seen the state his daughter had put me in; however, he thanked
me, and gave me a receipt for the money, saying, "Everything in my poor
house is at your service."
I bade them adieu, and I went away in an ill temper. I got into my
phaeton, and drove home and told the coachman to find me a stable for the
horses and a coach-house for the carriage.
I did not expect to see Leah again, and I felt enraged with her. She had
pleased me only too much by her voluptuous attitudes, but she had set up
an irritation wholly hostile to Love. She had made Love a robber, and the
hungry boy had consented, but afterwards, when he craved more substantial
fare, she refused him, and ardour was succeeded by contempt. Leah did not
want to confess herself to be what she really was, and my love would not
declare itself knavish.
I made the acquaintance of an amiable chevalier, a soldier, a man of
letters, and a great lover of horses, who introduced me to several
pleasant families. However, I did not cultivate them, as they only
offered me the pleasures of sentiment, while I longed for lustier fare
for which I was willing to pay heavily. The Chevalier de Breze was not
the man for me; he was too respectable for a profligate like myself. He
bought the phaeton and horses, and I only lost thirty sequins by the
transaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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