d to me, and lavished on
me her maternal caresses. I was now about nineteen years old, but was
only occupied about the house in writing for her, or in helping her in
her pharmaceutical experiments.

But madame was thinking of my future, and sent me on some pretext to see
M. d'Aubonne, a relative of hers, to find out what might be made of me.
His report of me was, that I was a poor-spirited creature, narrow,
ignorant, and clownish, and that the career of village priest was the
best that could be hoped for. Once more, therefore, I was set to Latin
at the seminary; but after some months I was returned by the bishop and
the rector as incapable of learning, though a passably well-conducted
youth. In the meantime I had been taken with a strong taste for music,
and it was arranged that I should spend the winter at the house of M. le
Maitre, director of music at the cathedral; he was a young man of great
talent and of high spirits, and lived only twenty paces from my little
mother. There I spent one of the most pleasant times of my life. But it
was cut short by a quarrel between Le Maitre and the cathedral chapter,
who had, as he thought, put a slight upon him. His revenge was to desert
his post on the eve of the elaborate Easter services, and madame desired
me to assist him in his flight. I was to attend him to Lyons, and remain
with him as long as he should need me. Her purpose was, as I have since
learned, to detach me from a plausible adventurer, M. Venture, a man of
great musical talent who had turned up at Annecy, and had engaged my
fancy. Our flight was successful. But on the second day after our
arrival at Lyons Le Maitre fell ill with a sudden seizure in the street,
and I, after telling the bystanders the name of his inn, and begging
them to carry him thither, slipped round the nearest corner and
disappeared. Le Maitre was deserted at his worst need by the only friend
on whom he had to count. I returned at once to Annecy, only to find that
madame had left for Paris.

M. Venture, however, was still there, and had turned the heads of all
the ladies in the place, and for a time I shared his lodging. Then,
after travelling with Merceret, the housemaid, as far as her home at
Fribourg-for she had to return thither and could find no other
attendant--I turned aside to Lausanne, with the idea of seeing the lake.
I arrived here without a penny, and it occurred to me to play Venture's
game on my own account. I took a false name,