dding
tears over the wreck of a once brilliant mind, when Desyvetaux,
suspending his antics long enough to look about him, perceived her and
rushed to her side with the liveliest expressions of joy. He removed
her suspicions of his sanity by explaining his metamorphosis in a
philosophical fashion:

"You know, my dear Ninon, there are certain tastes and pleasures which
find their justification in a certain philosophy when they bear all
the marks of moral innocence. Nothing can be said against them but
their singularity. There are no amusements less dangerous than those
which do not resemble those generally indulged in by the multitude."

Ninon was pleased with the amiable companion of her old friend. Her
figure, her mental attainments, and her talents enchanted her, and
Desyvetaux, who appeared in a ridiculous light when she first saw him
in his masquerade, now seemed to her to be on the road to happiness.
She made no attempt to persuade him to return to his former mode of
life, which she could not avoid at this moment, however, as
considering more agreeable than the new one he had adopted. But what
could she offer in the way of superior seductive pleasures to a pair
who had tasted pure and natural enjoyments? The vain amusements and
allurements of the world have no sympathy with anything but
dissipation, in which, the mind, yielding to the fleeting seductions
of art, leaves the heart empty as soon as the illusion disappears.

The strange conduct of Desyvetaux gave birth to numerous reflections
of this nature in Ninon's mind, but she did not cease to be his
friend, on the contrary, she entered into the spirit of his simple
life and visited him from time to time to enjoy the spectacle of such
a tender masquerade which Desyvetaux continued up to the time of his
death. It gave Mademoiselle Dupuis nearly as much celebrity as her
lover attained, for when the end came, she obeyed his desire to play a
favorite dance on her harp, to enable his soul to take flight in the
midst of its delicious harmony. It should be mentioned, that
Desyvetaux wore in his hat as long as he lived, a yellow ribbon, "out
of love for the gentle Ninon who gave it to me."

Socrates advises persons of means to imitate the swans, which,
realizing the benefit of an approaching death, sing while in their
death agony. The Abbe Brantome relates an interesting story of the
death of Mademoiselle de Lineul, the elder, one of the queen's
daughters, which rese