THE

FILLE DE CHAMBRE.

PARIS.

7 HAT the old French officer

W

had delivered

upon travelling, bringing Polonius's advice to his fon, upon the fame fubject, into my head -and that bringing in Hamlet; and Hamlet the reft of Shakespeare's works, I ftopp'd at the Quai de Conti, in my return home, to purchase the whole fet.

VOL. II.

B

The

The bookfeller faid he had not a fet in the world-Comment! faid I;

taking one up out of a fet which lay upon the counter betwixt us He

faid, they were fent him only to be got bound, and were to be fent back to Versailles in the morning to the Count de B***.

-And does the Count de B***, faid I, read Shakespeare? C'est un Efprit fort, replied the bookfeller.He loves English books; and, what is more to his honour, Monfieur, he loves the English too. You speak this fo civilly, faid I, that it is enough to oblige an Englishman to lay out a Louis d'or or two at your fhop-The bookfeller made a bow, and was going

3

going to fay fomething, when a young decent girl about twenty, who by her air and drefs feemed to be fille de chambre to fome devout woman of fashion, came into the fhop and asked for Les Egarements du Cœur & de l'Efprit: the bookfeller gave her the book directly; fhe pulled out a little green fattin purse run round with riband of the fame colour, and putting her finger and thumb into it, fhe took out the money and paid for it. As I had nothing more to stay me in the fhop, we both walk'd out of the door together.

-And what have you to do, my dear, faid I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who fcarce know yet you have one; nor, till love has

first told you it, or fome faithlefs fhepherd has made it ache, canft thou ever be fure it is fo.-Le Dieu m'en guarde! faid the girl.-With reafon, faid for if it is a good one, 'tis Ipity it fhould be ftolen; 'tis a little treafure to thee, and gives a better air to your face, than if it was drefs'd out with pearls.

The young girl liften'd with a fubmiffive attention, holding her fattin purse by its riband in her hand all the time-'Tis a very finall one, faid I, taking hold of the bottom of it-fhe held it towards methere is very little in it, my dear, said I; but be but as good as thou art handfome, and heaven will fill it: I had a parcel

I

and