lt so roughly with
him thus far. He fell from the frying-pan into the fire; he exchanged
his servitude for a still worse slavery. When he left the land of Egypt,
he fancied he saw the palms of the promised land. Alas! it was not long
before he regretted Egypt and Pharaoh! Why was not this woman Portia?
why was she neither young nor beautiful?" And he added: "Ah! old fairy,
you made him suffer!"

It seemed to Count Larinski that this woman, this ugly fairy who had
made Samuel Brohl suffer so much, stood there, before him, and that she
scanned him from head to foot, as a fairy, whether old or young, might
scan a worm. She had an imperious, contemptuous smile on her lips, the
smile of a czarina; so Catharine II smiled, when she was dissatisfied
with Potemkin, and said to herself, "I made him what he is, and
to-morrow I can ruin him." "Yes, it was she, it was surely she," thought
Count Larinski. "I cannot mistake. I saw her five weeks ago, in the
Vallee du Diable; she made me tremble!"

This woman who had taken Samuel Brohl from out of the land of Egypt, and
had showered attentions upon him, was a Russian princess. She owned an
estate of Podolia, and chance would have it that one day, in passing,
she stopped at the tavern where young Samuel was growing up in the
shadow of the tabernacle. He was then sixteen. In spite of his squalid
rags, she was struck by his figure. She was a woman of intelligence, and
had no prejudices. "When he is well washed and cared for," she thought,
"when he is divested of his native impurities, when he has seen the
world and had communication with honest people, he certainly will be a
noble fellow." She made him talk, and found him intelligent; she liked
intelligent men. She made him sing, assured herself that he had a voice;
she adored music. She questioned him; he told her all his misery, and
while he talked she said to herself: "No, I do not mistake; he has a
future before him; in two or three years he will be superb. Three years
is not long: the gardener who grafts a young tree is often condemned to
wait longer than that." When he had ended his narrative, she told him
that she was in want of a secretary, that she had had several, but that
she had soon tired of them, on account of their not having the desired
qualifications; she asked him if he would like to accept the position.
He replied only by pointing his finger to his father, who was smoking
his pipe on the door-step. A moment later she w