elled by its
own weight:"

To these details I added lengthy arguments to persuade her of the
efficacy of this cure, and then, seeing that she was absorbed in thought,
I said that as her lover was away she would want a sure friend to live in
the same house with her, and give her the dose according to the
directions of Paracelsus.

All at once she burst into a peal of laughter, and asked me if I had been
jesting all the time.

I thought the game was up. The remedy was an absurd one, on the face of
it; and if her common sense told her as much it would also make her guess
my motive. But what limits are there to the credulity of a woman in her
condition?

"If you wish," said I, persuasively, "I will give you the manuscript
where all that I have said is set down plainly. I will also shew you what
Boerhaeve thinks about it."

I saw that these words convinced her; they had acted on her as if by
magic, and I went on while the iron was hot.

"The aroph," said I, "is the most powerful agent for bringing on
menstruation."

"And that is incompatible with the state I am now in; so the aroph should
procure me a secret deliverance. Do you know its composition?"

"Certainly; it is quite a simple preparation composed of certain
ingredients which are well known to me, and which have to be made into a
paste with butter or virgin honey. But this composition must touch the
orifice of the uterus at a moment of extreme excitement."

"But in that case it seems to me that the person who gives the dose must
be in love."

"Certainly, unless he is a mere animal requiring only physical
incentives."

She was silent for some time, for though she was quick-witted enough, a
woman's natural modesty and her own frankness, prevented her from
guessing at my artifice. I, too, astonished at my success in making her
believe this fable, remained silent.

At last, breaking the silence, she said, sadly,

"The method seems to me an excellent one, but I do not think I ought to
make use of it."

Then she asked me if the aroph took much time to make.

"Two hours at most," I answered, "if I succeed in procuring English
saffron, which Paracelsus prefers to the Oriental saffron."

At that moment her mother and the Chevalier Farsetti came in, and after
some talk of no consequence she asked me to stay to dinner. I was going
to decline, when Mdlle. X. C. V. said she would sit at table, on which I
accepted; and we all left the room to give her time to