d he, "that I am convinced she
will make you just compensation."

I then told him how much I should be obliged by his doing so, as I had
been commissioned to deliver the things, and if I was made to pay for
them, the loss would be more serious than I could bear.

"Bah! bah!" exclaimed he. "Laissez moi faire! Laissez moi faire!"

When he came to the inner door, which I pretended to know nothing about,
he told the gentleman of the chamber his name, and said he wished to see
his mistress.

Her Highness came in a few minutes, and from her looks and visible
agitation at the sight of Danton, I feared she would have betrayed both
herself and me. However, while he was making a long preamble, I made
signs, from which she inferred that all was safe.

When Danton had finished telling her the story, she calmly said to me,
"Do you recollect, child, the things you have been robbed of?"

I replied that, if I had pen and ink, I could even set down the prices.

"Oh, well, then, child, come in," said Her Highness, "and we will see
what is to be done!"

"There!" exclaimed Danton; "Did I not tell you this before?" Then,
giving me a hearty squeeze of the hand, he departed, and thus terminated
the millinery speculation, which, I have no doubt, cost Her Highness a
tolerable sum.

As soon as he was gone, the Princess said, "For Heaven's sake, tell me
the whole of this affair candidly; for the Queen has been in the greatest
agitation at the bare idea of your knowing Danton, ever since we first
saw you walking with him! He is one of our moat inveterate enemies."

I said that if they had but witnessed one half of the scenes that I saw,
I was sure their feelings would have been shocked beyond description. "We
did not see all, but we heard too much for the ears of our sex."

I then related the particulars of our meeting to Her Highness, who
observed, "This accident, however unpleasant, may still turn out to our
advantage. This fellow believes you to be a marchande de modes, and the
circumstance of his having accompanied you to my apartment will enable
you, in future, to pass to and from the Pavilion unmolested by the
national guard."

With tears of joy in her eyes for my safety, she could not, however, help
laughing when I told her the farce I kept up respecting the loss of my
brother, and my bandbox with the millinery, for which I was also soon
congratulated most graciously by Her Majesty, who much applauded my
spirit and prese