" I own it is necessary," resumed the master of the hotel, "that a stranger at Paris should have the opportunities presented to him of buying lace and silk stockings and ruffles, et tout cela; and 'tis nothing if a woman comes with a bandbox." "Oh, my conscience!" said I; "she had one; but I never looked into it." "Then monsieur," said he, “has bought nothing?" "Not one earthly thing," replied I. "Because," said he, "I could recommend one to you who would use you en conscience." "But I must see her this night," said I. He made me a low bow, and walked down. "Now shall I triumph over this maître d'hôtel," cried I. And what then? "Then I shall let him see I know he is a dirty fellow." And what then? What then? I was too near myself to say it was for the sake of others. I had no good answer left; there was more of spleen than of principle in my project, and I was sick of it before the execution. In a few minutes the grisette came in with her box of lace. "I'll buy nothing, however," said I, within myself. The grisette would show me everything; I was hard to please: she would not seem to see it; she opened her little magazine, and laid all her laces one after another before me-unfolded and folded them up again one by one with the most patient sweetness. I might buy, or not; she would let me have everything at my own price: the poor creature seemed anxious to get a penny, and laid herself out to win me; and not so much in a manner which seemed artful, as in one I felt simple and caressing. If there is not a fund of honest cullibility in man, so much the worse; my heart relented, and I gave up my second resolution as quietly as the first. "Why should I chastise one for the trespass of another? If thou art tributary to this tyrant of an host," thought I, looking up in her face, "so much harder is thy bread." If I had not had more than four louis d'ors in my purse, there was no such thing as rising up and showing her the door, till I had first laid three of them out in a pair of ruffles. -The master of the hotel will share the profit with her; no matter, then I have only paid as many a poor soul has paid before me, for an act he could not do, or think of. THE RIDDLE. PARIS. WHEN La Fleur came up to wait upon me at supper, he told me how sorry the master of the hotel was for his affront to me in bidding me change my lodgings. A man who values a good night's rest will not lie down with enmity in his heart, if he can help it. So I bid La Fleur tell the master of the hotel that I was sorry on my side for the occasion I had given him; " And you may tell him, if you will, La Fleur," added 1, "that, if the young woman should call again, I shall not see her." This was a sacrifice, not to him, but myself; having resolved, after so narrow an escape, to run no more risks, but to leave Paris, if it was possible, with all the virtue I entered it. “C'est déroger à noblesse, monsieur," said La Fleur, making me a bow down to the ground as he said it. “Et encore, monsieur," said he, "may change his sentiments; and if (par hasard) he should like to amuse himself". "I find no amusement in it," said I, interrupting him. "Mon Dieu!" said La Fleur-and took away. In an hour's time he came to put me to bed, and was more than commonly officious: something hung upon his lips to say to me, or ask me, which he could not get off: I could not conceive what it was, and indeed gave myself little trouble to find it out, as I had another riddle so much more interesting upon my mind, which was that G2 of the man's asking charity before the door of the hotel. I would have given anything to have got to the bottom of it; and that, not out of curiosity-'tis so low a principle of inquiry in general, I would not purchase the gratification of it with a two-sous piece. But a secret, I thought, which so soon and so certainly softened the heart of every woman you came near, was a secret at least equal to the philosopher's stone: had I had both the Indies, I would have given up one to have been master of it. I tossed and turned it almost all night long in my brains to no manner of purpose; and when I awoke in the morning I found my spirits as much troubled with my dreams as ever the King of Babylon had been with his; and I will not hesitate to affirm, it would have puzzled all the wise men of Paris as much as those of Chaldea to have given its interpretation. |