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'He will be ready, monsieur," said she, "in a moment."

"And in that moment," replied I, <c most willingly would I say something very civil to you for all these courtesies. Any one may do a casual act of good-nature, but a continuation of them shews it is a part of the temperature: and certainly," added I, "if it is the same blood which comes from the heart which descends to the extremes (touching her wrist), "I am sure you must have one of the best pulses of any woman in the world."

"Feel it," said she, holding out her arm.

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So, laying down my hat, I took hold of her fingers in one hand, and applied the two forefingers of my other to the artery.

-Would to Heaven! my dear Eugenius, thou hadst passed by, and beheld me sitting in my black coat, and in my lackadaisical manner, counting the throbs of it, one by one, with as much true devotion as if I had been watching the critical ebb or flow of her fever: how wouldst thou have laughed and moralised upon my new profession !—and thou

shouldst have laughed and moralised on. Trust me, my dear Eugenius, I should have said, "There are worse occupations in this world than feeling a woman's pulse.” "But a grisette's!" thou wouldst have said; "and in an open shop! Yorick".

-"So much the better: for when my views are direct, Eugenius, I care not if all the world saw me feel it."

THE HUSBAND.

PARIS.

I HAD counted twenty pulsations, and was going on fast towards the fortieth, when her husband, coming unexpected from a back parlour into the shop, put me a little out of my reckoning. ""Twas nobody but her husband," she said :—so I began a fresh score. "Monsieur is so good,” quoth she, as he passed by

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us, as to give himself the trouble of feeling my pulse.”

The husband took off his hat, and, making me a bow, said I did him too much honour; and, having said that, he put on his hat, and walked out.

"Good God!" said I to myself, as he went "and can this man be the husband of this woman?"

out,

Let it not torment the few who know what must have been the grounds of this exclamation, if I explain it to those who do not.

In London, a shopkeeper, and a shopkeeper's wife seem to be one bone and one flesh: in the several endowments of mind and body, sometimes the one, sometimes the other, has it, so as, in general, to be upon a par, and to tally with each other as nearly as man and wife need to do.

In Paris, there are scarce two orders of beings more different: for the legislative and executive powers of the shop not resting in the husband, he seldom comes there: in some dark and dismal room behind, he sits

commerceless in his thrum nightcap, the same rough son of Nature that Nature left him.

The genius of a people, where nothing but the monarchy is salique, having ceded this department, with sundry others, totally to the women, by a continual higgling with customers of all ranks and sizes from morning to night, like so many rough pebbles shook along together in a bag, by amicable collisions, they have worn down their asperities and sharp angles, and not only become round and smooth, but will receive, some of them, a polish like a brilliant:-Monsieur le Mari is little better than the stone under your foot.

-Surely, surely, man! it is not good for thee to sit alone: thou wast made for social intercourse and gentle greetings; and this improvement of our natures from it I appeal to as my evidence.

-"And how does it beat, monsieur?” said she.

"With all the benignity," said I, looking quietly in her eyes, "that I expected."

She was going to say something civil in return, but the lad came into the shop with the gloves.

"A propos,” said I, “I want a couple of pairs myself."

THE GLOVES.

PARIS.

THE beautiful grisette rose up when I said this, and going behind the counter, reached down a parcel and untied it: I advanced to the side over against her: they were all too large. The beautiful grisette measured them one by one across my hand. It would not alter their dimensions. She begged I would try a single pair, which seemed to be the least. She held it open; my hand slipped into it at once.

"It will not do,” said I, shaking my head a little.

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