ject. His young
mistress, as witty as she was pretty, jested on the foolish passion of
her father, who had loved her madly ever since she was eleven.

"And you were always able to resist his attempts?" said I.

"Yes, whenever he pushed things too far."

"And how long did this state of things continue?"

"For two years. When I was thirteen he thought I was ripe, and tried to
gather the fruit; but I began to shriek, and escaped from his bed stark
naked, and I went to take refuge with my mother, who from that day forth
would not let me sleep with him again."

"You used to sleep with him? How could your mother allow it?"

"She never thought that there was anything criminal in his affection for
me, and I knew nothing about it. I thought that what he did to me, and
what he made me do to him, were mere trifles."

"But you have saved the little treasure?"

"I have kept it for my lover."

The poor lover, who was suffering more from the effects of hunger than
from his wounds, laughed at this speech of hers, and she ran to him and
covered his face with kisses. All this excited me intensely. Her story
had been told with too much simplicity not to move me, especially when I
had her before my eyes, for she possessed all the attractions which a
woman can have, and I almost forgave her father for forgetting she was
his daughter and falling in love with her.

When she escorted me back to my room I made her feel my emotion, and she
began to laugh; but as my servants were close by I was obliged to let her
go.

Early next morning I wrote to her father that his daughter had resolved
not to leave her lover, who was only slightly wounded, that they were in
perfect safety and under the protection of the law at Chamberi, and
finally that having heard their story, and judging them to be well
matched, I could only approve of the course they had taken. When I had
finished I went into their room and gave them the letter to read, and
seeing the fair runaway at a loss how to express her 'gratitude, I begged
the invalid to let me kiss her.

"Begin with me," said he, opening his arms.

My hypocritical love masked itself under the guise of paternal affection.
I embraced the lover, and then more amorously I performed the same office
for the mistress, and skewed them my purse full of gold, telling them it
was at their service. While this was going on the surgeon came in, and I
retired to my room.

At eleven o'clock Madame Morin and her da