e delicate lady
would be in danger of an attack of indigestion. Suppose, if you please,
that such a list would reach nearly to the end of the volume, leaving me
but a single page on which to write the marvellous history of Fougas.
Therefore I forthwith return to the parlor, where coffee is already
served.

Leon took scarcely half of his cup: but do not let that lead you to
infer that the coffee was too hot, or too cold, or too sweet. Nothing in
the world would have prevented his drinking it to the last drop, if a
knock at the street-door had not stopped it just opposite his heart.

The minute which followed appeared to him interminable. Never in his
travels had he encountered such a long minute. But at length Clementine
appeared, preceded by the worthy Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, her aunt; and
the mandarins who smiled on the etagere heard the sound of three
kisses. Wherefore three? The superficial reader, who pretends to
foresee things before they are written, has already found a very
probable explanation. "Of course," says he, "Leon was too respectful to
embrace the dignified Mlle. Sambucco more than once, but when he came to
Clementine, who was soon to become his wife, he very properly doubled
the dose." Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment! The first
kiss fell from the mouth of Leon upon the cheek of Mlle. Sambucco; the
second was applied by the lips of Mlle. Sambucco to the right cheek of
Leon; the third was, in fact, an accident that plunged two young hearts
into profound consternation.

Leon, who was very much in love with his betrothed, rushed to her
blindly, uncertain whether he would kiss her right cheek or her left,
but determined not to put off too long a pleasure which he had been
promising himself ever since the spring of 1856. Clementine did not
dream of defending herself, but was fully prepared to apply her pretty
rosy lips to Leon's right cheek or his left, indifferently. The
precipitation of the two young people brought it about that neither
Clementine's cheeks nor Leon's received the offering intended for them.
And the mandarins on the etagere, who fully expected to hear two kisses,
heard but one. And Leon was confounded, and Clementine blushed up to her
ears, and the two lovers retreated a step, intently regarding the roses
of the carpet which will remain eternally graven upon their memories.

In the eyes of Leon Renault, Clementine was the most beautiful creature
in the world. He had lo