Volume III Part 45 (1/2)

”No, no, my dear Esther; pity your friend, and say no more about it”

”Then I may read all the letters?”

”Yes, dearest, if it will amuse you”

All the letters of the faithless Manon Baletti to ether on un to read theerly

When I was dressed, as if for some Court holiday, Le Duc went out and left us by ourselves, for the worthy governess, orking at her lace by the , looked at her lace, and nothing else Esther said that nothing had ever amused her so much as those letters

”Those cursed epistles, which please you so well, will be the death of me”

”Death? Oh, no! I will cure you, I hope”

”I hope so, too; but after dinner you must help me to burn them all from first to last”

”Burn them! No; make me a present of them I promise to keep them carefully all my days”

”They are yours, Esther I will send them to you to-morrow”

These letters were more than two hundred in nuth She was enchanted to find herself the possessor of the letters, and she said she would make them into a parcel and take them away herself

”Shall you send back the portrait to your faithless mistress?” said she

”I don't knohat to do with it”

”Send it back to her; she is not worthy of your honouring her by keeping it I aive you the same advice Where is the portrait? Will you shew it old snuff-box, but I had never shewn it to Esther for fear she should think Manon handsomer than herself, and conclude that I only shewd it her out of vanity; but as she now asked to see it I opened the box where it was and gave it her

Any other woly, or have endeavored at the least to find some fault with her, but Esther pronounced her to be very beautiful, and only said it was a great pity so fair a body contained so vile a soul

The sight of Manon's portrait made Esther ask to see all the other portraits which Madaures ast them, but Esther was too pure a spirit to put on the hateful affectations of the prude, to who natural is an abomination O-Murphy pleased her very much, and her history, which I related, struck her as very curious The portrait of the fair nun, M---- M----, first in the habit of her order and afterwards naked, h, but I would not tell Esther her story, in spite of the lively desire she displayed to hear it

At dinner-tihtful hours in the pleasures of a conversation and the table I seehted to have been my physician Before we rose fro Manon's portrait to her husband on the day following, but her good nature found a way of dissuadingso withoutin front of the fire, she took a piece of paper, set up the pyramids, and inscribed the four keys O, S, A, D She asked if I should send the portrait to the husband, or whether it would not be enerous to return it to the faithless Manon

Whilst she was calculating she said over and over again, with a smile, ”I have not hed like two augurs ht to return the portrait, but to the giver, since to send it to the husband would be an act unworthy of a man of honour

I praised the wisdom of the oracle, and kissed the Pythoness a score of ti that the cabala should be obeyed iht the science since she knew it as well as the inventor

I spoke the truth, but Esther laughed, and, fearing lest I should really think so, took pains to assure me of the contrary

It is thus that love takes his pleasure, thus his growth increases, and thus that he so soon becoth

”Shall I be impertinent,” said Esther, ”if I ask you where your portrait is? Manon says in her letter that she is sending it back; but I don't see it anywhere”

”In e, I threw it down; I don't knohat direction What was thus despised by her cannot be of much value to me”