impolite, I will ride in front on horseback."

"Oh, not at all! Emilie shall sit on my lap."

Emilie was Malingan's daughter, and as everybody seemed to think the
arrangement an extremely pleasant one I had not the courage to resist. A
few moments after, I was obliged to leave the room for a few moments, and
when I came back I met her on the landing. She told me I had insulted her
grievously, and that unless I made amends I should feel her vengeance.

"You can begin your vengeance," I said, "by returning my bills of
exchange."

"You shall have them to-morrow, but you had better try and make me forget
the insult you have put on me."

I left the company in the evening, having arranged that we should all
breakfast together the next day.

At eight o'clock the two carriages were ready, and Malingan, his wife,
his daughter, and the two gentlemen got into the first vehicle, and I had
to get into the second with the ladies from Liege and the Charpillon, who
seemed to have become very intimate with them. This made me ill-tempered,
and I sulked the whole way. We were an hour and a quarter on the journey,
and when we arrived I ordered a good dinner, and then we proceeded to
view the gardens; the day was a beautiful one, though it was autumn.

Whilst we were Walking the Charpillon came up to me and said she wanted
to return the bills in the same place in which I had given her them. As
we were at some distance from the others I pelted her with abuse, telling
her of her perfidy and of her corruption at an age when she should have
retained some vestiges of innocence calling her by the name she deserved,
as I reminded her how often she had already prostituted herself; in short
I threatened her with my vengeance if she pushed me to extremities. But
she was as cold as ice, and opposed a calm front to the storm of
invective I rained in her ears. However, as the other guests were at no
great distance, she begged me to speak more softly, but they heard me and
I was very glad of it.

At last we sat down to dinner, and the wretched woman contrived to get a
place beside me, and behaved all the while as if I were her lover, or at
any rate as if she loved me. She did not seem to care what people thought
of my coldness, while I was in a rage, for the company must either have
thought me a fool or else that she was making game of me.

After dinner we returned to the garden, and the Charpillon, determined to
gain the victory, clung to my ar