g her hand begged her pardon, swearing not
to renew my attempts. I then rose and asked her to kiss me as a pledge of
her forgiveness. We rejoined her aunt, and returned to the ball-room, but
with all my endeavours I could not regain my calm.

I sat down in a corner of the room, and I asked Rose, who passed by me,
to get me a glass of lemonade. When she brought it she gently chid me for
not having danced with her, her sister, or her cousin.

"It will give people but a poor opinion of our merits."

"I am tired," said I, "but if you will promise to be kind I will dance a
minuet with you."

"What do want me to do?" said she.

"Go into my bedroom and wait for me there in the dark when you see your
sister and your cousin busy dancing."

"And you will only dance with me."

"I swear!"

"Then you will find me in your room."

I found her passionate, and I had full satisfaction. To keep my word with
her I waited for the closing minuet, for having danced with Rose I felt
obliged in common decency to dance with the other two, especially as I
owed them the same debt.

At day-break the ladies began to vanish, and as I put the Morins into my
carriage I told them that I could not have the pleasure of seeing them
again that day, but that if they would come and spend the whole of the
day after with me I would have the horoscope ready.

I went to the kitchen to thank the worthy door-keeper for having made me
cut such a gallant figure, and I found the three nymphs there, filling
their pockets with sweetmeats. He told them, laughing, that as the master
was there they might rob him with a clear conscience, and I bade them
take as much as they would. I informed the door-keeper that I should not
dine till six, and I then went to bed.

I awoke at noon, and feeling myself well rested I set to work at the
horoscope, and I resolved to tell the fair Mdlle. Roman that fortune
awaited her at Paris, where she would become her master's mistress, but
that the monarch must see her before she had attained her eighteenth
year, as at that time her destiny would take a different turn. To give my
prophecy authority, I told her some curious circumstances which had
hitherto happened to her, and which I had learnt now and again from
herself or Madame Morin without pretending to heed what they said.

With an Ephemeris and another astrological book, I made out and copied in
six hours Mdlle. Roman's horoscope, and I had so well arranged it that it
st