der will see how I met this blackguard four
months later.

Now, when all these troubles have been long over and I can think over
them calmly, reflecting on the annoyances I experienced at Amsterdam,
where I might have been so happy, I am forced to admit that we ourselves
are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so
unreasonably complain. If I could live my life over again, should I be
wiser? Perhaps; but then I should not be myself.

M. d'O---- asked me to sup with him at the Burgomasters' Lodge, and this
was a great distinction, for, contrary to the rules of Freemasonry, no
one but the twenty-four members who compose the lodge is admitted, and
these twenty-four masons were the richest men on the Exchange.

"I have told them that you are coming," said M. d'O----, "and to welcome
you more honourably the lodge will be opened in French." In short, these
gentlemen gave me the most distinguished reception, and I had the fortune
to make myself so agreeable to them that I was unanimously chosen an
honorary member during the time I should stay at Amsterdam. As we were
going away, M. d'O---- told me that I had supped with a company which
represented a capital of three hundred millions.

Next day the worthy Dutchman begged me to oblige him by answering a
question to which his daughter's oracle had replied in a very obscure
manner. Esther encouraged me, and I asked what the question was. It ran
as follows:

"I wish to know whether the individual who desires me and my company to
transact a matter of the greatest importance is really a friend of the
King of France?"

It was not difficult for me to divine that the Comte de St. Germain was
meant. M. d'O was not aware that I knew him, and I had not forgotten what
M. d'Afri had told me.

"Here's a fine opportunity," thought I, "for covering my oracle with
glory, and giving my fair Esther something to think about."

I set to work, and after erecting my pyramid and placing above the four
keys the letters O, S, A, D, the better to impose on Esther, I extracted
the reply, beginning with the fourth key, D. The oracle ran as follows:

"The friend disavows. The order is signed. They grant. They refuse. All
vanishes. Delay."

I pretended to think the reply a very obscure one, but Esther gave a cry
of astonishment and declared that it gave a lot of information in an
extraordinary style. M. d'O----, in an ecstasy of delight, exclaimed,

"The reply is clear enoug