ed to pierce this wall, which nature had made impassable by all
ordinary means. I was tempted to see what I could do with a bistoury, and
the girl wanted me to try, but I was afraid of the haemorrhage which
might have been dangerous, and I wisely refrained.

Poor Victorine, condemned to die a maid, unless some clever surgeon
performed the same operation that was undergone by Mdlle. Cheruffini
shortly after M. Lepri married her, wept when I said,--

"My dear child, your little Hymen defies the most vigorous lover to enter
his temple."

But I consoled her by saying that a good surgeon could easily make a
perfect woman of her.

In the morning I told Madame R---- of the case.

She laughed and said,--

"It may prove a happy accident for Victorine; it may make her fortune."

A few years after the Count of Padua had her operated on, and made her
fortune. When I came back from Spain I found that she was with child, so
that I could not exact the due reward for all the trouble I had taken
with her.

Early in the morning on Maunday Thursday they told me that Moses and Leah
wanted to see me. I had not expected to see them, but I welcomed them
warmly. Throughout Holy Week the Jews dared not shew themselves in the
streets of Turin, and I advised them to stay with me till the Saturday.
Moses began to try and get me to purchase a ring from him, and I judged
from that that I should not have to press them very much.

"I can only buy this ring from Leah's hands," said I.

He grinned, thinking doubtless that I intended to make her a present of
it, but I was resolved to disappoint him. I gave them a magnificent
dinner and supper, and in the evening they were shewn a double-bedded
room not far from mine. I might have put them in different rooms, and
Leah in a room adjoining mine, which would have facilitated any nocturnal
excursions; but after all I had done for her I was resolved to owe
nothing to a surprise; she should come of herself.

The next day Moses (who noticed that I had not yet bought the ring) was
obliged to go out on business, and asked for the loan of my carriage for
the whole day, telling me that he would come for his daughter in the
evening. I had the horses harnessed, and when he was gone I bought the
ring for six hundred sequins, but on my own terms. I was in my own house,
and Leah could not deceive me. As soon as the father was safely out of
the way I possessed myself of the daughter. She proved a docile and
a