efore I left, we went back to the inn in high good humour with our
curious party which I still remember with pleasure.

Madame Morin gave me a letter for her cousin Madame Varnier, and I
promised to write to her from Paris, and tell her all about the fair
Mdlle. Roman. I presented the daughter with a beautiful pair of
ear-rings, and I gave Madame Morin twelve pounds of good chocolate which
M. Magnan got me, and which the lady thought had come from Genoa. She
went off at eight o'clock preceded by Le Duc, who had orders to greet the
doorkeeper's family on my behalf.

At Magnan's I had a dinner worthy of Lucullus, and I promised to stay
with him whenever I passed Chamberi, which promise I have faithfully
performed.

On leaving the gourmand's I went to the convent, and M---- M---- came down
alone to the grating. She thanked me for coming to see her, and added
that I had come to disturb her peace of mind.

"I am quite ready, dearest, to climb the harden wall, and I shall do it
more dexterously than your wretched humpback."

"Alas! that may not be, for, trust me, you are already spied upon.
Everybody here is sure that we knew each other at Aix. Let us forget all,
and thus spare ourselves the torments of vain desires."

"Give me your hand."

"No. All is over. I love you still, probably I shall always love you; but
I long for you to go, and by doing so, you will give me a proof of your
love."

"This is dreadful; you astonish me. You appear to me in perfect health,
you are prettier than ever, you are made for the worship of the sweetest
of the gods, and I can't understand how, with a temperament like yours,
you can live in continual abstinence."

"Alas! lacking the reality we console ourselves by pretending. I will not
conceal from you that I love my young boarder. It is an innocent passion,
and keeps my mind calm. Her caresses quench the flame which would
otherwise kill me."

"And that is not against your conscience?"

"I do not feel any distress on the subject."

"But you know it is a sin."

"Yes, so I confess it."

"And what does the confessor say?"

"Nothing. He absolves me, and I am quite content:"

"And does the pretty boarder confess, too?"

"Certainly, but she does not tell the father of a matter which she thinks
is no sin."

"I wonder the confessor has not taught her, for that kind of instruction
is a great pleasure."

"Our confessor is a wise old man."

"Am I to leave you, then, without a sin