lasp is full of strength and sweetness,
they hold the secret of those ineffable caresses which plunge the
daughters of men into unfathomable depths of delight. Laying upon the
lips of their happy victims a honey that burns like fire, making their
veins flow with torrents of refreshing flames, they leave them raptured
and undone."

"Stop your clatter, you unclean beast," cried the wounded one.

"One word more!" said the angel; "just one other word, my dear Maurice,
to bear out what I say, and I will let you rest quietly. There's nothing
like having sound references. In order to assure yourself that I am not
deceiving you, Maurice, on this subject of the amorous embraces of
angels and women, look up Justin, _Apologies_, I and II; Flavius
Josephus, _Jewish Antiquities_, Book I, Chapter III; Athenagoras,
_Concerning the Resurrection_; Lactantius, Book II, Chapter XV;
Tertullian, _On the Veil of the Virgins_; Marcus of Ephesus in
_Psellus_; Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelica_, Book V, Chapter IV; Saint
Ambrose, in his book on _Noah and the Ark_, Chapter V; Saint Augustine,
in his _City of God_, Book XV, Chapter XXIII; Father Meldonat, the
Jesuit, _Treatise on Demons_, page 248; Pierre Lebyer the King's
Counsellor----"

"Arcade, please, for pity's sake, be quiet; do, please do, and send this
dog away," cried Maurice, whose face was burning, and whose eyes were
starting from his head; for in his delirium he thought he saw a black
spaniel on his bed.

Madame de la Verdeliere, who was assiduous in every modish and patriotic
practice, was reckoned, in the best French society, as one of the most
gracious of the great ladies interested in good works. She came herself
to ask for news of Maurice, and offered to nurse the wounded man. But at
the vehement instigation of Madame des Aubels, Arcade shut the door in
her face. Expressions of sympathy were showered upon Maurice. Piled on
the salver, visiting cards displayed their innumerable little dogs'
ears. Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec was one of the first to show his manly
sympathy at the flat in the Rue de Rome, and, holding out his loyal
hand, asked young d'Esparvieu as one honourable man to another for
twenty-five louis to pay a debt of honour.

"Of course, my dear Maurice, that is the sort of thing one could not ask
of everybody."

The same day Monsieur Gaetan came to press his nephew's hand. The latter
introduced Arcade.

"This is my guardian angel, whose foot you thought so b