, a girl from Brussels, as excellent as she was
pretty, had been married under my auspices to an Italian named Gaetan, by
trade a broker. This fellow, in his fit of jealousy, used to ill-treat
her shamefully; I had reconciled them several times already, and they
regarded me as a kind of go-between. They came to see me on the day on
which I was making my preparations for going to Holland. My brother and
Tiretta were with me, and as I was still living in furnished apartments I
took them all to Laudel's, where they gave one an excellent dinner.
Tiretta, drove his coach-and-four; he was ruining his ex-methodist, who
was still desperately in love with him.

In the course of dinner Tiretta, who was always in high spirits and loved
a jest, began to flirt with the girl, whom he saw for the first time.
She, who neither meant nor suspected any ill, was quite at her ease, and
we should have enjoyed the joke, and everything would have gone on
pleasantly, if her husband had possessed some modicum of manners and
common sense, but he began to get into a perfect fury of jealousy. He ate
nothing, changed colour ten times in a minute, and looked daggers at his
wife, as much as to say he did not see the joke. To crown all, Tiretta
began to crack jests at the poor wretch's expense, and I, foreseeing
unpleasantness, endeavoured, though all in vain, to moderate his high
spirits and his sallies. An oyster chanced to fall on Madame Gaetan's
beautiful breast; and Tiretta, who was sitting near her, took it up with
his lips as quick as lightning. Gaetan was mad with rage and gave his
wife such a furious box on the ear that his hand passed on from her cheek
to that of her neighbour. Tiretta now as enraged as Gaetan took him by
his middle and threw him down, where, having no arms, he defended himself
with kicks and fisticuffs, till the waiter came, and we put him out of
the room.

The poor wife in tears, and, like Tiretta, bleeding at the nose, besought
me to take her away somewhere, as she feared her husband would kill her
if she returned to him. So, leaving Tiretta with my brother, I got into a
carriage with her and I took her, according to her request, to her
kinsman, an old attorney who lived in the fourth story of a house in the
Quai de Gevres. He received us politely, and after having heard the tale,
he said,

"I am a poor man, and I can do nothing for this unfortunate girl; while
if I had a hundred crowns I could do everything."

"Don't