f what passed on this
occasion. I only remember that Blanche and the Widow figured at it, not
as "de Cominges," but as "du Placet." Why they had hitherto been "de
Cominges" I do not know--I only know that this entirely satisfied the
General, that he liked the name "du Placet" even better than he had
liked the name "de Cominges." On the morning of the wedding, he paced
the salon in his gala attire and kept repeating to himself with an air
of great gravity and importance: "Mlle. Blanche du Placet! Mlle.
Blanche du Placet, du Placet!" He beamed with satisfaction as he did
so. Both in the church and at the wedding breakfast he remained not
only pleased and contented, but even proud. She too underwent a change,
for now she assumed an air of added dignity.

"I must behave altogether differently," she confided to me with a
serious air. "Yet, mark you, there is a tiresome circumstance of which
I had never before thought--which is, how best to pronounce my new
family name. Zagorianski, Zagozianski, Madame la Generale de Sago,
Madame la Generale de Fourteen Consonants--oh these infernal Russian
names! The LAST of them would be the best to use, don't you think?"

At length the time had come for us to part, and Blanche, the egregious
Blanche, shed real tears as she took her leave of me. "Tu etais bon
enfant" she said with a sob. "Je te croyais bete et tu en avais l'air,
but it suited you." Then, having given me a final handshake, she
exclaimed, "Attends!"; whereafter, running into her boudoir, she
brought me thence two thousand-franc notes. I could scarcely believe my
eyes! "They may come in handy for you," she explained, "for, though you
are a very learned tutor, you are a very stupid man. More than two
thousand francs, however, I am not going to give you, for the reason
that, if I did so, you would gamble them all away. Now good-bye. Nous
serons toujours bons amis, and if you win again, do not fail to come to
me, et tu seras heureux."

I myself had still five hundred francs left, as well as a watch worth a
thousand francs, a few diamond studs, and so on. Consequently, I could
subsist for quite a length of time without particularly bestirring
myself. Purposely I have taken up my abode where I am now partly to
pull myself together, and partly to wait for Mr. Astley, who, I have
learnt, will soon be here for a day or so on business. Yes, I know
that, and then--and then I shall go to Homburg. But to Roulettenberg I
shall not go un