Volume III Part 14 (1/2)
”You were sure of success, then,” said he, ”as you did not co operation”
”Of course I was sure, but if I had not been too busy you would have seen me, for all that”
”May I take a bath?”
”No, don't bathe till you feel quite well”
”Very good Everybody is in a state of astonish the miracle to all h at me, but I let them talk”
”You should have kept your own counsel; you knohat Paris is like
Everybody will be considering me as a master-quack”
”Not at all, not at all I have come to ask a favour of you”
”What's that?”
”I have an aunt who enjoys a great reputation for her skill in the occult sciences, especially in alchemy She is a woman of wit, very, rich, and soleher will do you no hars to see you, for she pretends to know you, and says that you are not what you seem She has entreated me to take you to dine with her, and I hope you will accept the invitation Her name is the Marchioness d'Urfe”
I did not know this lady, but the naht my attention directly, as I knew all about the famous Anne d'Urfe who flourished towards the end of the seventeenth century The lady was theof his great-grandson, and oninto the family became a believer in the mystical doctrines of a science in which I was ave it little credit I therefore replied that I should be glad to go, but on the condition that the party should not exceed the count, his aunt, and myself
”She has twelve people every day to dinner, and you will find yourself in the company of the best society in Paris”
”My dear fellow, that's exactly what I don't want; for I hate to be thought a ician, which must have been the effect of the tales you have told”
”Oh, no! not at all; your character is well known, and you will find yourself in the society of people who have the greatest regard for you”
”Are you sure of that?”
”The duchess de l'Oragnais told o, you were often to be seen at the Palais Royal, and that you used to spend whole days with the duchess d'Orleans; Madame de Bouffers, Madame de Blots, and Mada not to keep up your old acquaintances I know at least a hundred people of the first rank who are suffering froive the half of their goods to be cured”
De la Tour d'Auvergne had reason on his side, but as I knew his wonderful cure had been due to a singular coincidence, I had no desire to expose myself to public ridicule I therefore told him that I did not wish to become a public character, and that he must tell Mada on her in strict privacy only, and that she ht tell me the day and hour on which I should kneel before her
The sa an appointment at the Tuileries for the morrow; he was to meet me there, and take me to his aunt's to dinner No one else was to be present
The next day we ed, and went to see Madame d'Urfe, who lived on the Quai des Theatins, on the same side as the ”Hotel Bouillon”
Madame d'Urfe, a woman advanced in years, but still handsorace of the Court of the Regency We spent an hour and a half in indifferent conversation, occupied in studying each other's character Each was trying to get at the botto the part of the unenlightened, for such, in point of fact, was my state of mind, and Mada her learning; this put me at my ease, for I felt sure I couldher pleased with herself
At two o'clock the same dinner that was prepared every day for twelve was served for us three Nothing worthy of note (so far as conversation went) was done at dinner, as we talked commonplace after the manner of people of fashi+on
After the dessert Tour d'Auvergne left us to go and see the Prince de Turenne, as in a high fever, and after he was gone Madaic, and all the other branches of her beloved science, or rather infatuation When we got on to the num opus, and I asked her if she knew the nature of the first matter, it was only her politeness which prevented her froraciously that she already possessed the philosopher's stone, and that she was acquainted with all the operations of the work She then shewed reat d'Urfe, and Renee of Savoy, his wife; but she had added to it manuscripts which had cost her more than a hundred thousand francs
Paracelsus was her favourite author, and according to her he was neither man, woman, nor hermaphrodite, and had the misfortune to poison himself with an overdose of his panacea, or universal medicine She shewed reat as clearly explained
She told me that she did not keep it under lock and key, because it ritten in a cypher, the secret of which was known only to herself
”You do not believe, then, in steganography”