the mafter of the hotel, that I was forry, on my fide, for the occafion. 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 fee her.

This was a facrifice, 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.

C'eft déroger à nobleffe, Monfieur, faid La Fleur, making me a bow down to the ground as he said it- Et encore, Monfieur, faid he, may change his fentiments -and if (par hazard) he should like to amufe himself I find no amusement in it, faid I, interrupting him.

Mon Dieu! faid La Fleur-and took way.

* In an hour's time he came to put me to bed, and was more than commonly officious-fomething hung upon his lips to fay 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 fa

much more interefting upon my mind, which was that of the man's asking charity before the door of the hotel-I-would have given any thing to have got to the bottom of it; and that, not out of curiofity-it is fo low a principle of inquiry, in general, I would not purchase the gratification of it with a two-fous piece--but a fecret, I thought, which fo foon and fo certainly foftened the heart of every woman you came near, was a fecret at leaft equal to the philosopher's ftone; had I had both the Indies, I would have given up one to have been mafter of it.

I toffed and turned it almost all night long in my brains, to no manner of purpofe; and when I awoke in the morning, I found my fpirits 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 wife 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 fo gallantly arrayed, I scarce knew him.

I had covenanted at Montriul to give him a new hat with a filver button and loop, and four Louis d'ors pour s'adonifer, when we got to Paris; and the poor fellow, to do him juftice, had done wonders with it.

He had bought a bright, clean, good fcarlet coat, and a pair of breeches of the fame-They were not a crown worse, he faid, for the wearing-I wished him hangeď for telling me-They looked fo fresh, that though I knew the thing could not be done, yet I would rather have impofed 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 fore at Paris.

He had purchased, moreover, a handfome blue fatin waiftcoat, fancifully enough embroidered this was indeed fomething the worfe for the service it had done, but it was clean scoured-the gold had been touched up, and upon the whole was rather showy than otherwife-and as the blue was not violent, it suited with the coat and breeches very well: he had fqueezed out of the money, moreover, new bag and a folitaire, and had infifted with the fripier upon a gold pair of garters to his breeches knees― He had purchafed muflin ruffles, bien brodées, with four livres of his own money-and a pair of white filk ftockings for five more—and, to top all, Nature had given him a handfome figure, without costing him a fous.

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He entered the room thus fet off, with his hair dreffed in the firft ftyle and with a handsome bouquet in his breast-in a word, there was that look of feftivity in every thing about him, which at once put me in mind it was Sunday-and by combining both together, it inftantly ftruck that the favour he wifhed to afk of me the night before, was to spend the day,

me,

as every body in Paris spent it befides. I had scarce made the conjecture, when La Fleur, with infinite humility, but with a look of truft, as if I should not refuse him, begged I would grant him the day, pour faire le galant vis-à-vis de fa maîtresse.

Now it was the very thing I intended to do myself vis-à-vis Madame de R**** -I had retained the remife on purpose for it, and it would not have mortified my vanity to have had a fervant fo well dreffed as La Fleur was, to have got up behind it: I never could have worse spared him.

But we muft feel, not argue in these embarrassments-the fons and daughters of service part with liberty, but not with Nature, in their contracts; they are flesh and blood, and have their little vanities and wishes in the midft of the house of bondage, as well as their task-masters—1 doubt, they have fet their felf-denials at a price and their expectations are fo unreasonable, that I would often difappoint them, but that their condition puts it fo much in my power to do it.

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