r maidenhead. I pretended to believe her, though I cared very
little whether it were so or not.

I left her after I had repeated the dose three or four times, and gave
her fifty sequins, telling her to get a good wadded coverlet and a large
brazier, as I wanted to sleep with her the next night.

Next morning I received an extremely interesting letter from Grenoble. M.
de Valenglard informed me that the fair Mdlle. Roman, feeling convinced
that her horoscope would never come true unless she went to Paris, had
gone to the capital with her aunt.

Her destiny was a strange one; it depended on the liking I had taken to
her and my aversion to marriage, for it lay in my power to have married
the handsomest woman in France, and in that case it is not likely that
she would have become the mistress of Louis XV. What strange whim could
have made me indicate in her horoscope the necessity of her journeying to
Paris; for even if there were such a science as astrology I was no
astrologer; in fine, her destiny depended on my absurd fancy. And in
history, what a number of extraordinary events would never have happened
if they had not been predicted!

In the evening I went to the theatre, and found my Corticelli clad in a
pretty cloak, while the other girls looked at me contemptuously, for they
were enraged at the place being taken; while the proud favourite caressed
me with an air of triumph which became her to admiration.

In the evening I found a good supper awaiting me, a large brazier on the
hearth, and a warm coverlet on the bed. The mother shewed me all the
things her daughter had bought, and complained that she had not got any
clothes for her brother. I made her happy by giving her a few louis.

When I went to bed I did not find my mistress in any amorous transports,
but in a wanton and merry mood. She made me laugh, and as she let me do
as I liked I was satisfied. I gave her a watch when I left her, and
promised to sup with her on the following night. She was to have danced
the pas de deux, and I went to see her do it, but to my astonishment she
only danced with the other girls.

When I went to supper I found her in despair. She wept and said that I
must avenge her on the Jew, who had excused himself by putting the fault
on somebody else, but that he was a liar. I promised everything to quiet
her, and after spending several hours in her company I returned home,
determined to give the Jew a bad quarter of an hour. Next mor