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 I, "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.

"Et

"C'est déroger à noblesse, Monsieur," said La Fleur, making me a bow down to the ground as he said it. encore, Monsieur," said he, “ may change his sentiments; and if (par hasard) he should like to amuse himself

no amusement in it," said I, interrupting him.

"Mon Dieu!" said La Fleur-and took away.

"I find

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 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— 't is so low a principle of enquiry 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.

LE DIMANCHE.

PARIS.

It was Sunday; and when La Fleur came in, in the morning, with my coffee and roll and butter, he had got himself so gallantly arrayed, I scarce knew him.

I had covenanted at Montreuil to give him a new hat with a silver button and loop, and four louis d'ors, pour s'adoniser, when we got to Paris; and the poor fellow, to do him justice, had done wonders with it.

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He had bought a bright, clean, good scarlet coat, and a pair of breeches of the same. They were not a crown worse," he said, "for the wearing." I wished him hanged for telling me. They looked so fresh, that though I knew the thing could not be done, yet I would rather have imposed upon my fancy with thinking I had bought them new for the fellow, than that they had come out of the Rue de Friperie.

This is a nicety which makes not the heart sore at Paris. He had purchased moreover a handsome blue satin waistcoat, fancifully enough embroidered: this was indeed something the worse for the service it had done, but 't was clean scoured;

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 the master of the hotel was for his affront to me

me how sorry

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 I, "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.

"Et

"C'est déroger à noblesse, Monsieur," said La Fleur, making me a bow down to the ground as he said it. 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 of the man's asking charity before the door of the hotel. I would have given anything to