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THE ADVENTURES OF GIL BLAS of Santillane. BOOK IV. chapter i. Gil Blas being disgusted at the irregularities of the actresses, quits the service of Arsenia, and gets into a more creditable family. Aremnant of honour and religion, which I did not fail to preserve, amidst such corruption of morals, made me resolve not only to leave Arsenia, but also to break off all correspondence with Laura, whom, however, I could not help loving, though I was sensible of her flagrant infidelity. Happy is he who can thus profit by those moments of reflection that interrupt the pleasures which engross his attention! Early one morning, I bundled up my cloaths, and without clearing with Arsenia, who was indeed, little or nothing in my debt; or taking leave of my dear Laura, I quitted the house where I had breathed nothing but the air of debauchery; and I had no sooner performed such a good action than heaven rewarded me for it, by throwing me in the way of the steward1 of Don Matthias my late master. Having saluted him, he knew me, and stopt to enquire if I was in any service; to which I answered, that I had been about a minute or two out of place: for that after having lived about a month with Arsenia, whose behaviour I did not like, I had left her of my own accord, in order to preserve my innocence. The steward, as if he had been scrupulously religious, approved of my delicacy, and told me that since I was a young man of such honour, he would make it his business to settle me in an advantageous place. He performed his promise, and that very day, introduced me into the service of Don Vincent de Guzman, whose manager was one of his acquaintance. I could not have got into a better family, and therefore had no cause to be displeased with my situation in the sequel. Don Vincent was a very rich old nobleman, who had lived many years without law-suit or wife; the physicians2 having deprived him of his spouse, by endeavouring to free her of a cough, which she might have preserved much longer had she abstained from their prescriptions. Instead of marrying again, he had 156 The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane applied himself wholly to the education of Aurora, his only daughter, who was then going in her six and twentieth year, and justly passed for an accomplished young lady: for with an uncommon share of beauty, she had an excellent genius, perfectly well cultivated . Her father, though he was no conjurer, possessed the happy talent of managing his affairs to the best advantage; but had one fault, which, however, is pardonable in old men. He delighted in talking, and above all things, of war and bloodshed. If any body was so unfortunate as to touch that string in his presence, he instantly set the trumpet to his mouth;3 and the hearers were very happy if they got off for the relation of two sieges and three battles. As he had spent two thirds of his life in the army, his memory was an inexhaustible source of different actions, which were not always listened to with the same pleasure that he felt in recounting them. Besides, he stammered in his speech, and was very prolix, which rendered his manner of relating very disagreeable. Otherwise, I never knew a nobleman of a better character. He had a great deal of aequanimity, and was neither passionate nor whimsical: a circumstance which I admired very much in a man of quality. Though he was a good oeconomist, he kept an honourable house, his domestics consisting of several footmen,4 and three women who waited on Aurora. I soon perceived that the steward of Don Matthias, had procured a good post for me, and bent all my endeavours to maintain myself in it: for this purpose, I began by reconnoitring the ground; that is, studying the different humours5 of every body in the family; then, regulating my conduct by the observations I made, it was not long before I acquired the good will of my master, and all his servants. When I had been about a month in Don Vincent’s family, I thought I perceived that his daughter distinguished me from all the rest of the valets in the house. Always when her eyes were fixed upon me, I remarked a sort of complaisance...

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