Volume III Part 26 (2/2)
”Alas! if I could only count on your friendshi+p I should be happy”
The sigh hich she uttered these words sent fire through my veins, and I told her that I was her devoted slave; that I had fifty thousand crohich were at her service, and that I would risk rateful to me, and as she threw her ar, so I took care that the fire which her kisses raised should be kept within bounds She beggedthat as often as she could e it we should be alone I could ask no more, and after I had promised to come and dine with them on thebehind her, enjoying my new position of intimate friend, and I then returned to h I lived in the country I could get to any part of Paris in a quarter of an hour I had a clever coachot theot another fro to pay two hundred francs This happened to reatest pleasures which Paris offers
Having accepted an invitation to dinner at the X C V's, I did not give myself much time for sleep, and I went out on foot with a cloak on
The snoas falling in large flakes, and when I got to ave hter had been telling her how she had puzzled hted to see me come to dinner without ceremony ”But,” added she, ”it's Friday today, and you will have to fast, though, after all, the fish is very good Dinner is not ready yet
You had better go and see ined, this invitation had not to be repeated, for a pretty woman looks better in bed than anywhere else I found Mdlle X C V
sitting up in bed writing, but she stopped as soon as she saw me
”How is this, sweet lie-a-bed, not up yet?”
”Yes, I a in bed partly because I feel lazy, and partly because I am freer here”
”I was afraid you were not quite well”
”Nor aoing to take some soup, as those who foolishly establish the institution of fasting were not polite enough to ask ree with et up even to sit at table, though I shall thus deprive myself of your society”
I naturally told her that in her absence dinner would have no savour; and I spoke the truth
As the presence of her sister did not disturb us, she took out of her pocket-book an epistle in verse which I had addressed to her when her mother had forbidden me the house ”This fatal letter,” said she, ”which you called 'The Phoenix,' has shaped my life and may prove the cause of my death”
I had called it the Phoenix because, after bewailing my unhappy lot, I proceeded to predict how she would afterwards give her heart to a mortal whose qualities would make him deserve the name of Phoenix A hundred lines were taken up in the description of these iinarywho should have theht worthy of worshi+p, for he would be rather a God than a man
”Alas!” said Mdlle X C V, ”I fell in love with this i certain that such an one must exist I set ht I had found hiave him my heart, I received his, we loved each other fondly But for the last fourthe whole time I have only had one letter from him Yet I must not blame him, for I know he cannot help it
Such, is my sorry fate: I can neither hear from him nor write to him:”
This story was a confirmation of a theory of mine namely, that the most important events in our lives proceed often fro better than a number of lines of poetryI had delineated was certainly not to be found, as he surpassed by far all human perfections, but a woman's heart travels so quickly and so far! Mdlle X C V took the thing literally, and fell in love with a chioodness, and then was fain to turn this into a real lover, not thinking of the vast difference between the ideal and the real For all that, when she thought that she had found the original ofhiood qualities I had pictured
Of course Mdlle X C V would have fallen in love if I had never written her a letter in verse, but she would have done so in a different manner, and probably with different results
As soon as dinner was served ere summoned to do justice to the choice fish which M de la Popeliniere had provided Madaoted and superstitious In the mind of a silly wos, God and the Devil, seems quite natural A priest had told her that, since she had converted her husband, her salvation was secure, for the Scriptures solemnly promised a soul for a soul to every one ould lead a heretic or a heathen within the fold of the church And as Madame X C V had converted her husband, she felt no anxiety about the life of the world to come, as she had done all that was necessary
However, she ate fish on the days appointed; the reason being that she preferred it to flesh
Dinner over, I returned to the lady's bedside, and there stayed till nearly nine o'clock, keeping my passions well under control all the tis were as lively as mine, and I did not care to shew h I knew then, as I kno, that this was a false line of argument It is the same with opportunity as with fortune; one o by, often to return noFarsetti at the table, I suspected there had been a quarrel, and I asked my sweetheart about it; but she toldthey had quarreled with him, and that the reason of his absence was that he would never leave his house on a Friday The deludedby it that he would be assassinated on a Friday he resolved always to shut hihed at, but persisted in the sae of seventy He thought to prove by the success of his precautions that a man's destiny depends on his discretion, and on the precautions he takes to avoid the uood in all cases except when the misfortunes are predicted in a horoscope; for either the ills predicted are avoidable, in which case the horoscope is a useless piece of folly, or else the horoscope is the interpreter of destiny, in which case all the precautions in the world are of no avail The Chevalier Farsetti was therefore a fool to iood deal for one out on a Friday, and had chanced to have been assassinated Picas de la Mirandola, who believed in astrology, says, ”I have no doubt truly, 'Astra influunt, non cogunt'” But would it have been a real proof of the truth of astrology, if Farsetti had been assassinated on a Friday? In reville had introducedto make my acquaintance ever since she had heard ofbefore I hters, the elder of whonac later on Madame du Remain was handsome rather than pretty, but she won the love of all by her kindness, her frank courtesy, and her eagerness to be of service to her friends She had a ure, and would have awed the whole bench of judges if she had pleaded before theot to know Mesdames de Valbelle and de Rancerolles, the Princess de Chimai, and many others ere then in the best society of Paris Although Madame du Remain was not a proficient in the occult sciences, she had nevertheless consulted my oracle more frequently than Madame d'Urfe She was of the utmost service to me in connection with an unhappy circumstance of which I shall speak presently