 the affair was managed with an air of slyness and gravity, though
the secret was known to the whole city.«
    »I immediately set about this project, and employed every art and engine to
effect it. I had particularly bribed her priest, and an old female acquaintance
and distant relation of her's, into my interest: but all was in vain; her virtue
opposed the passion in her breast as strongly as wisdom had opposed it in mine.
She received my proposals with the utmost disdain, and presently refused to see
or hear from me any more.«
    »She returned again to Naples, and left me in a worse condition than before.
My days I now passed with the most irksome uneasiness, and my nights were
restless and sleepless. The story of our amour was now pretty public, and the
ladies talked of our match as certain; but my acquaintance denied their assent,
saying, No, no, he is too wise to marry so imprudently. This their opinion gave
me, I own, very great pleasure; but, to say the truth, scarce compensated the
pangs I suffered to preserve it.«
    »One day, while I was balancing with myself, and had almost resolved to
enjoy my happiness at the price of my character, a friend brought me word that
Ariadne was married. This news struck me to the soul; and though I had
resolution enough to maintain my gravity before him (for which I suffered not a
little the more), the moment I was alone I threw myself into the most violent
fit of despair, and would willingly have parted with wisdom, fortune, and
everything else, to have retrieved her; but that was impossible, and I had now
nothing but time to hope a cure from. This was very tedious in performing it,
and the longer as Ariadne had married a Roman cavalier, was now become my near
neighbour, and I had the mortification of seeing her make the best of wives, and
of having the happiness which I had lost, every day before my eyes.«
    »If I suffered so much on account of my wisdom in having refused Ariadne, I
was not much more obliged to it for procuring me a rich widow, who was
recommended to me by an old friend as a very prudent match; and, indeed, so it
was, her fortune being superior to mine in the same proportion as that of
Ariadne had been inferior. I therefore embraced this proposal, and my character
of wisdom soon pleaded so effectually for me with the widow, who was herself a
woman of great gravity and
