Volume IV Part 55 (1/2)
”The Arab was sent to you by an eneenius of Mercury”
”It reat misfortune”
”On the contrary, it rendered youtowards the carriage when all at onceSt
Germain, but as soon as he noticed us he turned back and we lost sight of hiainst us, but our genie o and impart this piece of news to the Duc de Choiseul to- I am curious to hear what he will say when I tell hi back to Paris I left Madame d'Urfe, and walked to the Porte St Denis to see my brother He and his wife received ht the wife very pretty but very wretched, for Providence had not allowed my brother to prove his manhood, and she was unhappily in love with him I say unhappily, because her love kept her faithful to hiht easily have found a cure for her rieved bitterly, for she did not know that my brother was impotent, and fancied that the reason of his abstention was that he did not return her love; and the mistake was an excusable one, for he was like a Hercules, and indeed he was one, except where it was rief threw her into a consumption of which she died five or six years later She did not mean her death to be a punishment to her husband, but we shall see that it was so
The next day I called on Madaive her Madame Morin's letter I was cordially welcoh to say that she had rather see me than anybody else in the world; her niece had told her such strange things about ot quite curious This, as is well known, is a prevailing complaint omen
”You shall see my niece,” she said, ”and she will tell you all about herself”
She wrote her a note, and put Madame Morin's letter under the same envelope
”If you want to knohat my niece's answer is,” said Madame Varnier, ”you must dine with me”
I accepted the invitation, and she immediately told her servant that she was not at hoer who had taken the note to Passi returned at four o'clock with the following epistle:
”The alt once more will be one of the happiest of my life Ask him to be at your house at ten o'clock the day after tomorrow, and if he can't co the note and pro to keep the appointment, I left Madame Varnier and called on Madame de Rumain, who told me I must spend a whole day with her as she had several questions to put to my oracle
Next day Madame d'Urfe told me the reply she had from the Duc de Choiseul, when she told him that she had seen the Cone
”I should not be surprised,” said the ht in my closet”
The duke was a man of wit and a man of the world He only kept secrets when they were really important ones; very different froive the a mystery of trifles of no consequence It is true that the Duc de Choiseul very seldoreat iue and ht to be), concealment would be rather ridiculous than necessary
The duke had pretended to disgrace St Gerht use him as a spy in London; but Lord Halifax was by no overnments have the politeness to afford one another these services, so that none of them can reproach the others
The sed -house, telling lad to see me
The next day I took care not to fail in my appointment with the fair lady I was at Madame Varnier's a quarter of an hour before the arrival of the dazzling brunette, and I waited for her with a beating at the heart which shewed iven me had not quenched the flame of love When she ure carried respect with it, so that I did not feel as if I could coreet her tenderly; but she was far fro that more respect was due to her than when she was at Grenoble, poor but also pure She kissed me affectionately and told me as much
”They think I am happy,” said she, ”and envy my lot; but can one be happy after the loss of one's self-respect? For the last six hed; while at Grenoble I laughed heartily froladness I have diaarden, waiting-maids, and a hest Court ladies treat le day without experiencing some mortification”
”Mortification?”
”Yes; people coed to send the”
”Why not?”