THE FILLE DE CHAMBRE PARIS WHAT the old French officer had delivered upon travelling, bringing Polonius's advice to his son, upon the same subject, into my head,—and that bringing in Hamlet, and Hamlet the rest of Shakespear's Works, I stopt at the Quai de Conti, in my return home, to purchase the whole set. The bookseller said he had not a set in the world .... Comment! said I, taking one up out of a set which lay upon the counter betwixt us,-He said, they were sent him only to be got bound; and were to be sent back to Versailles in the morning to the Count de B****. -And does the Count de B****, said I, read Shakespear?.... C'est un Esprit fort, replied the bookseller.--He loves English books; and, what is more to his honour, Monsieur, he love the English too. You speak this so civilly, said I, that t'is enough to oblige an Englishman to lay out a Louis d'or or two at your shop-the bookseller made a bow, and was going to say something, when a young, decent girl, of about twenty, who, by her air and dress seemed to be fille de chambre to some devout woman of fashion, came into the shop and asked for Les Egarments du Cœur et de l'Esprit: the bookseller gave her the book directly; she pulled out a little green satin purse, run round with a ribband of the same colour, and, putting her finger and thumb into it, she took out the money and paid for it. As I had nothing more to stay me in the shop, we both walked out at the door together. -And what have you to do, my dear, said I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who scarce know yet you have one? nor, 'till love has first told you it, or some faithless shepherd has made it ache, can'st thou ever be sure it is so.... Le Dieu m'en guard! said the girl.... With reason, said I; for, if it is a good one, 'tis pity it should be stolen; 'tis a little treasure to thee, and gives a better air to your face than if it was dressed out with pearls. The young girl listened with a submissive attention, holding her satin purse by its ribband in her hand all the time.-'Tis a very small one, said I, taking hold of the bottom of it-she held it towards me-and there is very little in it, my dear, said I;-but be but as good as thou art handsome, and heaven will fill it. |