I am sure you do not wish to deceive me.

I will give you eight hundred and fifty." Deceive him, indeed! The very man who had received fifteen hundred from me said I deceived him when I asked thirteen hundred for the same piece of land! But I needed it very much, and so, bargaining and wrangling, I got one thousand and seventy-five francs in bank-notes; and I took care they should all be good ones too.

It was a poor price, I know, but I could do no better, and I went home happy.

But I dared not tell Mariuccia.

She is only my servant, to be sure, but she would have torn me in pieces.
Then I wrote to the authorities at the university to say that I was obliged to leave Rome suddenly, and would of course not claim my salary during my absence.