Volume III Part 62 (1/2)

”I can hardly credit her requesting, or your granting, such a thing,”

said she, ”unless you have sou to ue, and went out to work offa stiff walk I took supper with Madaht Her conversation pleased ant, and she told her stories and cracked her jokes with charrace She was devoid of prejudices, but by no means devoid of principle Her discretion was rather the result of system than of virtue; but if she had not a virtuous spirit, her system would not have shi+elded her from the storms of passion or the seductions of vice

My encounter with the i at an early hour on the following day to coni I warned Madame Dubois that if I were not back by dinner-tini had been told byto paythe steps she had taken to gain her ends

”Your excellency may find it very funny,” said I, ”but I don't”

”So I see; but take h at the adventure Behave as if you were unaware of her presence, and that will be a sufficient punishment for her People will soon say she is smitten with you, and that you disdain her love Go and tell the story to M----, and stay without ceremony to dinner I have spoken to Lebel about your pretty housekeeper: the worthyher to you He happened to be going to Lausanne, and just before, I had told hi it over on his way, he remembered his friend Madaed without ular find, a perfect jewel for you, and if you get taken with her I don't think she will allow you to languish for long”

”I don't know, she seeht you would be taken in by that sort of thing

I will ask you both to give lad to hear her chatter”

M---- welcoratulated me on my conquest, which would make my country house a paradise I joined in the jest, of course, with the h I could see that she suspected the truth, added her congratulations to those of her husband; but I soon changed the course of their friendlytheh then, and the husband said that if she had really quartered herself on et an injunction fro her to put her foot within my doors

”I don't want to do that,” said I, ”as besides publicly disgracing her I should be skewingthat I was not the master in my own house, and that I could not prevent her establishi+ng herself with lad you gave way to her That she polite you are, and I shall go and call on her to congratulate her on the welcoot, as she told me that her plans had succeeded”

Here the matter ended, and I accepted their invitation to dine with them I behaved as a friend, but with that subtle politeness which takes away all ground for suspicion; accordingly, the husband felt no alarm

My charmer found the opportunity to tellto the ill-timed demand of that harpy, and that as soon as M

de Chauvelin, whoain, I could ask her husband to spend a few days with me, and that she would doubtless come too

”Your door-keeper's wife,” she added, ”was my nurse I have been kind to her, and when necessary I can write to you by her without running any risk”

After calling on two Italian Jesuits ere passing through Soleure, and inviting the day, I returned hoht by philosophical discussions She adht was not a proof of the existence of spirit in us, as it was in the power of God to endow ht; I was unable to controvert this position She reat difference between thinking and reasoning, and I had the courage to say,--

”I think you would reason well if you let yourself be persuaded to sleep withto be so persuaded”

”Trust me, sir,” said she; ”there is aspowers of men and women as there is between their physical characteristics”

Nextour chocolate, when e, but I did not take the slightest notice

The villainous woe and installed herself in her room with her maid

I had sent Le Duc to Soleure formy housekeeper to do my hair; and she did it admirably, as I told her we should have the ambassador and the two Jesuits to dinner I thanked her, and kissed her for the first time on the cheek, as she would not allow me to touch her beautiful lips I felt that ere fast falling in love with one another, but we continued to keep ourselves under control, a task which was much easier for her than for me, as she was helped by that spirit of coquetry natural to the fair sex, which often has greater power over theni ca the Jesuits, and had sent entleed ed certain petty duties in which she was then engaged

M de Chavigni was one of those men ere sent by France to such powers as she wished to cajole and to win over to her interests M de l'Hopital, who kne to gain the heart of Elizabeth Petrovna, was another; the Duc de Nivernois, who did what he liked with the Court of St James's in 1762, is a third instance

Madame Dubois careeably; and M de Chavigni told me that he considered she had all the qualities which would make a man happy At dinner she enchanted him and captivated the two Jesuits by her delicate and subtle wit In the evening this delightful old noble me to dine at his house while M de Chauvelin was there, he left me with an effusive embrace