an that I was not at home to anybody. I ordered
breakfast to be served to the companion of the nymph, that she might not
find the waiting tedious.

"Sir," said the Charpillon, "is it a fact that you charged the Chevalier
Goudar to tell my mother that you would give a hundred guineas to spend
the night with me?"

"No, not to spend a night with you, but after I had passed it. Isn't the
price enough?"

"No jesting, sir, if you please. There is no question of bargaining; all
I want to know is whether you think you have a right to insult me, and
that I am going to bear it?"

"If you think yourself insulted, I may, perhaps, confess I was wrong; but
I confess I did not think I should have to listen to any reproaches from
you. Gondar is one of your intimate friends, and this is not the first
proposal he has taken to you. I could not address you directly, as I know
your arts only too well."

"I shall not pay any attention to your abuse of my self; I will only
remind you of what I said 'that neither money nor violence were of any
use,' and that your only way was to make me in love with you by gentle
means. Shew me where I have broken my word! It is you that have foresworn
yourself in coming into my bath-room, and in sending such a brutal
message to my mother. No one but a rascal like Goudar would have dared to
take such a message."

"Goudar a rascal, is he? Well, he is your best friend. You know he is in
love with you, and that he only got you for the ambassador in the hope of
enjoying you himself. The document in his possession proves that you have
behaved badly towards him. You are in his debt, discharge it, and then
call him a rascal if you have the conscience to do so. You need not
trouble to weep, for I knew the source of those tears; it is defiled."

"You know nothing of it. I love you, and it is hard to have you treat me
so."

"You love me? You have not taken the best way to prove it!"

"As good a way as yours. You have behaved to me as if I were the vilest
of prostitutes, and yesterday you seemed to think I was a brute beast,
the slave of my mother. You should have written to me in person, and
without the intervention of so vile an agent; I should have replied in
the same way, and you need not have been afraid that you would be
deceived."

"Supposing I had written, what would your answer have been?"

"I should have put all money matters out of question. I should have
promised to content you on the condition