e before you
risk your three hundred thousand florins." This proposition pleased the
father and daughter highly; they could not express their gratitude to me
for being so careful of their interests.

What followed was truly surprising--enough to make one believe in
fatality. My readers probably will not believe it; but as these Memoirs
will not be published till I have left this world, it would be of no use
for me to disguise the truth in any way, especially as the writing of
them is only the amusement of my leisure hours. Well, let him who will
believe it; this is absolutely what happened. I wrote down the question
myself, erected the pyramid, and carried out all the magical ceremonies
without letting Esther have a hand in it. I was delighted to be able to
check an act of extreme imprudence, and I was determined to do so. A
double meaning, which I knew how to get, would abate M. d'O----'s courage
and annihilate his plans. I had thought over what I wanted to say, and I
thought I had expressed it properly in the numbers. With that idea, as
Esther knew the alphabet perfectly well, I let her extract the answer,
and transfer it into letters. What was my surprise when I heard her read
these words:

"In a matter of this kind neither fear nor hesitate. Your repentance
would be too hard for you to bear."

That was enough. Father and daughter ran to embrace me, and M. d'O-said
that when the vessel was sighted a tithe of the profits should be mine.
My surprise prevented me giving any answer; I had intended to write trust
and hazard, and I had written fear and hesitate. But thanks to his
prejudice, M. d'O---- only saw in my silence confirmation of the
infallibility of the oracle. In short, I could do nothing more, and I
took my leave leaving everything to the care of chance, who sometimes is
kind to us in spite of ourselves.

The next morning I took up my abode in a splendid suite of rooms in
Esther's house, and the day after I took her to a concert, where she
joked with me on the grief I should endure on account of the absence of
Madame Trend and my daughter. Esther was the only mistress of my soul. I
lived but to adore her, and I should have satisfied my love had not
Esther been a girl of good principles. I could not gain possession of
her, and was full of longing and desire.

Four or five days after my installation in my new quarters, M.
d'O---communicated to me the result of a conference which he had had with
M. Pels and