out crying in a very loud tone--the nervous fit had come on,
as I had anticipated....

* * * * *

"Some days later, I had almost forgotten this avowal of a tipsy woman
when I chanced to find myself at an evening party with this Mme. de
X---- whom my mistress had advised me to embrace. As I lived in the
same direction as she did, I offered to drive her to her own door, for
she was alone this evening. She accepted my offer.

"As soon as we were in the carriage, I said to myself: 'Come! I must
try it on!' But I had not the courage. I did not know how to make a
start, how to begin the attack.

"Then suddenly, the desperate courage of cowards came to my aid. I
said to her: 'How pretty you were, this evening.'

"She replied with a laugh: 'So then, this evening was an exception,
since you only remarked it for the first time.'

"I did not know what rejoinder to make. Certainly my gallantry was not
making progress. After a little reflection, however, I managed to say:

"'No, but I never dared to tell you.'

"She was astonished:

"'Why?'

"'Because it is--it is a little difficult.'

"'Difficult to tell a woman that she's pretty? Why, where did you
come from? You should always tell us so, even when you only half think
it ... because it always gives us pleasure to hear."...

"I felt myself suddenly animated by a fantastic audacity, and,
catching her round the waist, I raised my lips towards her mouth.

"Nevertheless I seemed to be rather nervous about it, and not to
appear so terrible to her. I must also have arranged and executed my
movement very badly, for she managed to turn her head aside so as to
avoid contact with my face, saying:

"'Oh no--this is rather too much--too much.... You are too quick! Take
care of my hair. You cannot embrace a woman who has her hair dressed
like mine!'...

"I resumed my former position in the carriage, disconcerted, unnerved
by this repulse. But the carriage drew up before her gate; and she, as
she stepped out of it, held out her hand to me, saying in her most
gracious tones:

"'Thanks, dear monsieur, for having seen me home ... and don't forget
my advice!'

"I saw her three days later. She had forgotten everything.

"And I, monsieur, I am incessantly thinking of the other sort of
men--the sort of men to whom a lady's hair is no obstacle, and who
know how to seize every opportunity."...

THE HORRIBLE

The shadows of a balmy night we