hese knots then, and that heaven may form better ones, that
nothing can break, that it may make of us the most tender and faithful
couple that ever was; there is the profession of faith in which I would
die.

"Excuse my scrawl: you must guess more than the half of it, but I know
no help for this. I am obliged to write to you hastily while everyone
is asleep here: but be easy, I take infinite pleasure in my watch; for
I cannot sleep like the others, not being able to sleep as I would
like--that is to say, in your arms.

"I am going to get into bed; I shall finish my letter tomorrow: I have
too many things to tell to you, the night is too far advanced: imagine
my despair. It is to you I am writing, it is of myself that I converse
with you, and I am obliged to make an end.

"I cannot prevent myself, however, from filling up hastily the rest of
my paper. Cursed be the crazy creature who torments me so much! Were
it not for him, I could talk to you of more agreeable things: he is not
greatly changed; and yet he has taken a great deal o f %t. But he has
nearly killed me with the fetid smell of his breath; for now his is
still worse than your cousin's: you guess that this is a fresh reason
for my not approaching him; on the contrary, I go away as far as I can,
and sit on a chair at the foot of his bed.

"Let us see if I forget anything.

"His father's messenger on the road;
The question about Joachim;
The-state of my house;
The people of my suite;
Subject of my arrival;
Joseph;
Conversation between him and me;
His desire to please me and his repentance;
The explanation of his letter;
Mr. Livingston.

"Ah! I was forgetting that. Yesterday Livingston during supper told de
Rere in a low voice to drink to the health of one I knew well, and
to beg me to do him the honour. After supper, as I was leaning on his
shoulder near the fire, he said to me, 'Is it not true that there are
visits very agreeable for those who pay them and those who receive them?
But, however satisfied they seem with your arrival, I challenge their
delight to equal the grief of one whom you have left alone to-day, and
who will never be content till he sees you again.' I asked him of whom
he wished to speak to me. He then answered me by pressing my arm: 'Of
one of those who have not followed you; and among those it is easy for
you to guess of whom I want to speak.'

"I have worked till two o'clock at t