d taken. When I had
finished I went into their room and gave them the letter to read, and
seeing the fair runaway at a loss how to express her 'gratitude, I begged
the invalid to let me kiss her.

"Begin with me," said he, opening his arms.

My hypocritical love masked itself under the guise of paternal affection.
I embraced the lover, and then more amorously I performed the same office
for the mistress, and skewed them my purse full of gold, telling them it
was at their service. While this was going on the surgeon came in, and I
retired to my room.

At eleven o'clock Madame Morin and her daughter arrived, preceded by Le
Duc on horseback, who announced their approach by numerous smacks of his
whip. I welcomed her with open arms, thanking her for obliging me.

The first piece of news she gave me was that Mdlle. Roman had become
mistress to Louis XV., that she lived in a beautiful house at Passi, and
that she was five months gone with child. Thus she was in a fair way to
become queen of France, as my divine oracle had predicted.

"At Grenoble," she added, "you are the sole topic of conversation; and I
advise you not to go there unless you wish to settle in the country, for
they would never let you go. You would have all the nobility at your
feet, and above all, the ladies anxious to know the lot of their
daughters. Everybody believes in judicial astrology now, and Valenglard
triumphs. He has bet a hundred Louis to fifty that my niece will be
delivered of a young prince, and he is certain of winning; though to be
sure, if he loses, everybody will laugh at him."

"Don't be afraid of his losing."

"Is it quite certain?"

"Has not the horoscope proved truthful in the principal particular? If
the other circumstances do not follow, I must have made a great mistake
in my calculations."

"I am delighted to hear you say so."

"I am going to Paris and I hope you will give me a letter of introduction
to Madame Varnier, so that I may have the pleasure of seeing your niece."

"You shall have the letter to-morrow without fail."

I introduced Mdlle. Desarmoises to her under the family name of her
lover, and invited her to dine with Madame Morin and myself. After dinner
we went to the convent, and M---- M---- came down very surprised at this
unexpected visit from her aunt; but when she saw me she had need of all
her presence of mind. When her aunt introduced me to her by name, she
observed with true feminine tact that durin