ncied I should recognise her
amongst a thousand. If her long black eyelashes did not betray her,
her beautiful teeth were sure to do so; or, if I heard her voice,
there could be no doubt then; and, lastly, her foot would as infallibly
identify her as did Cinderella's.

For want of better, it was agreed upon that we should make the
'Restaurant a Quatre Sous' our rendezvous each day, to exchange our
confidences and report progress. It will scarcely be believed how even
this much of a pursuit diverted my mind from its own dark dreamings, and
how eagerly my thoughts pursued the new track that was opened to them.
It was the utter listlessness, the nothingness of my life, that was
weighing me down; and already I saw an escape from this in the pursuit
of a good object. I could wager that the pastor of La Marche never
thought so intensely, so uninterruptedly, of Lisette as did I for the
four-and-twenty hours that followed! It was not only that I had created
her image to suit my fancy, but I had invented a whole narrative of her
life and adventures since her arrival in Paris.

My firm conviction being that it was lost time to seek for her in
obscure and out-of-the-way quarters of the city, I thought it best to
pursue the search in the thronged and fashionable resorts of the gay
world, the assemblies and theatres. Strong in this conviction, I changed
one of my three gold pieces to purchase a ticket for the opera. The
reader may smile at the sacrifice; but when he who thinks four sous
enough for a dinner, pays twelve francs for the liberty to be crushed in
the crowded parterre of a playhouse, he is indeed buying pleasure at a
costly price. It was something more than a fifth of all I possessed in
the world, but, after all, my chief regret arose from thinking that it
left me so few remaining 'throws of the dice' for 'Fortune.'

I have often reflected since that day by what a mere accident I was
present, and yet the spectacle was one that I have never forgotten.
It was the last time the First Consul appeared in public, before his
assumption of the Imperial title; and at no period through all his great
career was the enthusiasm more impassioned regarding him. He sat in the
box adjoining the stage--Cambaceres and Lebrun, with a crowd of others,
standing and not sitting, around and behind his chair. When he appeared,
the whole theatre rose to greet him, and three several times was he
obliged to rise and acknowledge the salutations. An