eg your pardon, I only want you to be pleased."

We had exquisite wines, and at dessert some ratafia superior to the
Turkish 'visnat' I had tasted seventeen years before at Yussuf Ali's.
When my landlord came up at the end of supper, I told him that he ought
to be Louis XV.'s head cook.

"Go on as you have begun, and do better if you can; but let me have your
bill every morning."

"You are quite right; with such an arrangement one can tell how one is
getting on."

"I should like you always to give me ices, and you must let me have two
more lights. But, unless I am mistaken, those are candles that I see. I
am a Venetian, and accustomed to wax lights."

"That is your servant's fault, sir."

"How is that?"

"Because, after eating a good supper, he went to bed, saying he was ill.
Thus I heard nothing as to how you liked things done."

"Very good, you shall learn from my own lips."

"He asked my wife to make chocolate for you tomorrow morning; he gave her
the chocolate, I will make it myself."

When he had left the room M. de Valenglard said, in a manner that was at
the same time pleased and surprised, that Madame d'Urfe had been
apparently joking in telling him to spare me all expense.

"It's her goodness of heart. I am obliged to her all the same. She is an
excellent woman."

We stayed at table till eleven o'clock, discussing in numerable pleasant
topics, and animating our talk with that choice liqueur made at Grenoble,
of which we drank a bottle. It is composed of the juice of cherries,
brandy, sugar, and cinnamon, and cannot be surpassed, I am sure, by the
nectar of Olympus.

I sent home the baron in my carriage, after thanking him for his
services, and begging him to be my companion early and late while I
stayed at Grenoble--a re quest which he granted excepting for those days
on which he was on duty. At supper I had given him my bill of exchange on
Zappata, which I endorsed with the name de Seingalt, which Madame d'Urfe
had given me. He discounted it for me next day. A banker brought me four
hundred louis and I had thirteen hundred in my cash-box. I always had a
dread of penuriousness, and I delighted myself at the thought that M. de
Valenglard would write and tell Madame d'Urfe, who was always preaching
economy to me, what he had seen. I escorted my guest to the carriage, and
I was agreeably surprised when I got back to find the doorkeeper's two
charming daughters.

Le Duc had not waited for me to te