Two years afterwards I found again the same features on the handsome face of M.de Bragadin, a Venetian senator of whom I shall have to speak at length when we come to that period of my life.

That elderly gentleman had listened to me with the greatest attention, but without uttering one word.

In society, a man whose face and general appearance excite your interest, stimulates strongly your curiosity if he remains silent.

When we left the dining-room I enquired from de Bonneval who he was; he answered that he was wealthy, a philosopher, a man of acknowledged merit, of great purity of morals, and strongly attached to his religion.

He advised me to cultivate his acquaintance if he made any advances to me.
I was pleased with his advice, and when, after a walk under the shady trees of the garden, we returned to a drawing-room furnished in the Turkish fashion, I purposely took a seat near Yusuf Ali.