eft me, and you will soon see, reader, that men used
me no better than the blind goddess. Nevertheless, since one's fate has
phases as well as the moon, good follows evil as disasters succeed to
happiness.

I still played on the martingale, but with such bad luck that I was soon
left without a sequin. As I shared my property with M. M. I was obliged
to tell her of my losses, and it was at her request that I sold all her
diamonds, losing what I got for them; she had now only five hundred
sequins by her. There was no more talk of her escaping from the convent,
for we had nothing to live on! I still gamed, but for small stakes,
waiting for the slow return of good luck.

One day the English ambassador, after giving me a supper at his casino
with the celebrated Fanny Murray, asked me to let him sup at my casino at
Muran, which I now only kept up for the sake of Tonine. I granted him the
favour, but did not imitate his generosity. He found my little mistress
smiling and polite, but always keeping within the bounds of decency, from
which he would have very willingly excused her. The next morning he wrote
to me as follows:

"I am madly in love with Tonine. If you like to hand her over to me I
will make the following provision for her: I will set her up in a
suitable lodging which I will furnish throughout, and which I will give
to her with all its contents, provided that I may visit her whenever I
please, and that she gives me all the rights of a fortunate lover. I will
give her a maid, a cook, and thirty sequins a month as provision for two
people, without reckoning the wine, which I will procure myself. Besides
this I will give her a life income of two hundred crowns per annum, over
which she will have full control after living with me for a year. I give
you a week to send your answer."

I replied immediately that I would let him know in three days whether his
proposal were accepted, for Tonine had a mother of whom she was fond, and
she would possibly not care to do anything without her consent. I also
informed him that in all appearance the girl was with child.

The business was an important one for Tonine. I loved her, but I knew
perfectly well that we could not pass the rest of our lives together, and
I saw no prospect of being able to make her as good a provision as that
offered by the ambassador. Consequently I had no doubts on the question,
and the very same day I went to Muran and told her all.

"You wish to leav