place of Dubarry, mistress of Louis XV., but a lettre de cachet compelled
him to try elsewhere. Ah! happy days of lettres de cachet, you have gone
never to return!

The Charpillon waited a fortnight for me to reply, and then resolved to
return to the charge in person. This was no doubt the result of a
conference of the most secret kind, for I heard nothing of it from
Gondar.

She came to see my by herself in a sedan-chair, and I decided on seeing
her. I was taking my chocolate and I let her come in without rising or
offering her any breakfast. She asked me to give her some with great
modesty, and put up her face for me to give her a kiss, but I turned my
head away. However, she was not in the least disconcerted.

"I suppose the marks of the blows you gave me make my face so repulsive?"

"You lie; I never struck you."

"No, but your tiger-like claws have left bruises all over me. Look here.
No, you needn't be afraid that what you see may prove too seductive;
besides, it will have no novelty for you."

So saying the wretched creature let me see her body, on which some livid
marks were still visible.

Coward that I was! Why did I not look another way? I will tell you: it
was because she was so beautiful, and because a woman's charms are
unworthy of the name if they cannot silence reason. I affected only to
look at the bruises, but it was an empty farce. I blush for myself; here
was I conquered by a simple girl, ignorant of well nigh everything. But
she knew well enough that I was inhaling the poison at every pore. All at
once she dropped her clothes and came and sat beside me, feeling sure
that I should have relished a continuance of the spectacle.

However, I made an effort and said, coldly, that it was all her own
fault.

"I know it is," said she, "for if I had been tractable as I ought to have
been, you would have been loving instead of cruel. But repentance effaces
sin, and I am come to beg pardon. May I hope to obtain it?"

"Certainly; I am angry with you no longer, but I cannot forgive myself.
Now go, and trouble me no more."

"I will if you like, but there is something you have not heard, and I beg
you will listen to me a moment."

"As I have nothing to do you can say what you have got to say, I will
listen to you."

In spite of the coldness of my words, I was really profoundly touched,
and the worst of it was that I began to believe in the genuineness of her
motives.

She might have relieved herse