I knew that returning to Geneva would
be putting an insuperable barrier between us, unless I repeated the
expedient which had brought me here, and it was certainly better to
preserve than expose myself to the danger of a relapse; besides all
this, my conduct was predetermined, I was resolved not to return.
Madam de Warrens, seeing her endeavors would be fruitless, became less
explicit, and only added, with an air of commiseration, "Poor child!
thou must go where Providence directs thee, but one day thou wilt
think of me."- I believe she had no conception at that time how
fatally her prediction would be verified.
The difficulty still remained how I was to gain a subsistence? I
have already observed that I knew too little of engraving for that
to furnish my resource, and had I been more expert, Savoy was too poor
a country to give much encouragement to the arts. The
above-mentioned glutton, who ate for us as well as himself, being
obliged to pause in order to gain some relaxation from the fatigue
of it, imparted a piece of advice, which, according to him, came
express from Heaven: though to judge by its effects it appeared to
have been dictated from a direct contrary quarter: this was that I
should go to Turin, where, in a hospital instituted for the
instruction of catechumens, I should find food, both spiritual and
temporal, be reconciled to the bosom of the church, and meet with some
charitable Christians, who would make it a point to procure me a
situation that would turn to my advantage.
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