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It is a story, Monsieur le Notaire, said the gentleman, which will rouse up every affection in na ture; it will kill the humane, and touch the heart of Cruelty herself with pity.

The Notary was inflamed with a desire to begin, and put his pen a third time into his ink-horn! and the old gentleman, turning a little more towards the Notary, began to dictate his story in these words:

I,

....

And where is the rest of it, La Fleur? said as he just then entered the room.

THE FRAGMENT, AND THE BOUQUET.*

PARIS.

WHEN La Fleur came close up to the table, and was made to comprehend what I wanted, he told me there were only two other sheets of it, which he had wrapped round the stalks of a bouquet to keep it together, which he had presented to the demoiselle upon the boulevards. Then prithee, La Fleur, said I, step back to her, to the Count de B****'s hotel, and see if thou canst get it. . . . . There is no doubt of it, said La Fleur; and away he flew.

• ...

In a very little time the poor fellow came back, quite out of breath, with deeper marks of disappointment in his looks than could arise from the simple irreparability of the fragment. Juste Ciel! in less than two minutes that the poor fellow had taken his last tender farewell of her his faithless mistress had given his gage d'amour to one of the Count's footmen footman to a young sempstress, and the sempstress to a fiddler, with my fragment at the end of it. · Our

* Nosegay.

the

I gave a sigh,

misfortunes were involved together, and La Fleur echoed it back again to my ear. How perfidious! cried La Fleur. How unlucky! said I.

....

I should not have been mortified, Monsieur, quoth La Fleur, if she had lost it. . . . . Nor I, La Fleur, said I, had I found it.

Whether I did or no, will be seen hereafter.

THE ACT OF CHARITY.

PARIS.

THE man who either disdains or fears to walk up a dark entry may be an excellent good man, and fit for a hundred things; but he will not do to make a good Sentimental Traveller. I count little of the many things I see pass at broad noon-day, in large and open streets. Nature is shy, and hates to act before spectators; but in such an unobserved corner you sometimes see a single short scene of hers worth all the sentiments of a dozen French plays compounded together; and yet they are absolutely fine; and whenever I have a more brilliant affair upon my hands than common, as they suit a preacher quite as well as a hero, I generally make my sermon out of 'em; and for the text, "Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,' is as good as any one in the Bible.

There is a long dark passage issuing out from the Opera Comique into a narrow street; 'tis trod by a few who humbly wait for a fiacre,* or wish to get off quietly o'foot when the Opera is done. At the end of it, towards the theatre, 'tis lighted by a small candle, the

*Hackney-coach.

light of which is almost lost before you get half way down; but near the door, 'tis more for ornament than use, you see it as a fix'd star of the least magnitude; but does little good to the world, that we

it burns, know of.

In returning along this passage, I discerned, as I approached within five or six paces of the door, two ladies standing, arm in arm, with their backs against the wall, waiting, as I imagined, for a fiacre: — as they were next the door, I thought they had a prior right; so edged myself up within a yard or little more of them, and quietly took my stand. I was in black, and scarce seen.

The lady next me was a tall lean figure of a woman, of about thirty-six; the other, of the same size and make, of about forty: there was no mark of wife or widow in any one part of either of them; they seemed to be two upright vestal sisters, unsapped by caresses, unbroke in upon by tender salutations. could have wished to have made them happy; their happiness was destined, that night, to come from another quarter.

I

A low voice, with a good turn of expression, and sweet cadence at the end of it, begged for a twelvesous piece betwixt them, for the love of heaven. I thought it singular that a beggar should fix the quota of an alms, and that the sum should be twelve times as much as what is usually given in the dark. They both seemed astonished at it as much as myself. Twelve sous! said one. A twelve-sous piece!

said the other, and made no reply.

The poor man said he knew not how to ask less

of ladies of their rank; and bow'd down his head to

the ground.

Poo! said they,

we have no money.

The beggar remained silent for a moment or two, and renewed his supplication.

....

Do not, my fair young ladies, said he, stop your good ears against me. .. Upon my word, honest man! said the younger, we have no change..... Then God bless you! said the poor man, and multiply those joys which you can give to others without change! - I observed the eldest sister put her hand into her pocket. I'll see, said she, if I have a sous! A sous! give twelve, said the supplicant; Nature has been bountiful to you! be bountiful to a poor man. I would, friend, with all my heart, said the younger, if I had it.

....

. My fair charitable! said he addressing himself to the elder, what is it but your goodness and humanity which makes your bright eyes so sweet that they outshine the morning, even in this dark passage? and what was it which made the Marquis de Santerre and his brother say so much of you both as they just passed by?

The two ladies seemed much affected; and impulsively, at the same time, they both put their hands into their pockets, and each took out a twelve-sous piece.

The contest between them and the poor supplicant was no more, it was continued betwixt themselves which of the two should give the twelve-sous piece in charity; and, to end the dispute, they both gave it together, and the man went away.

THE RIDDLE EXPLAINED.

PARIS.

I STEPPED hastily after him: it was the very man whose success in asking charity of the women before the door of the hotel had so puzzled me; and I found at once his secret, or at least the basis of it;

flattery.

'twas

Delicious essence! how refreshing art thou to Nature! how strongly are all its powers and all its weaknesses on thy side! how sweetly dost thou mix with the blood, and help it through the most difficult and tortuous passages of the heart!

The poor man, as he was not straitened for time, had given it here in a larger dose: 'tis certain he had a way of bringing it into less form, for the many sudden cases he had to do with in the streets; but how he contrived to correct, sweeten, concentre, and qualify I vex not my spirit with the inquiry; it is enough, the beggar gained two twelve-sous pieces, and they can best tell the rest who have gained much greater matters by it.

it,

PARIS.

WE get forwards in the world not so much by doing services as receiving them: you take a withering twig, and put it in the ground; and then you water it, because you have planted it.

Mons. le Comte de B****, merely because he had done me one kindness in the affair of the passport, would go on and do me another, the fews days he was